


One Scoop Workplace Romance, Two Scoops Supernatural Occurrences

by Lost_Girl_02



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Getting to Know Each Other, Hawkins is not a normal town, Minor Season 3 Speculation, Mutual Pining, Party Bonding, Slow Burn, Soccer Mom Steve Harrington, Stakeouts, Steve Harrington's Nail Bat, Steve's face gets beat up because of course it does, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Summer of '85, Two Shot, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 03:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 28,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17378744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_Girl_02/pseuds/Lost_Girl_02
Summary: During the summer of 1985, Steve Harrington finds himself working at the newly opened Scoops Ahoy...and is promptly bored out of his mind, until new-to-town Robin starts.However, Robin finds herself (against her better judgement) getting attached to her coworker and the crazy band of preteens he comes with, she finds a new side to the sleepy town of Hawkins, Indiana.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've had an idea for this fic since the commercial was released, and I finally finished and am posting it here! Just a heads up, there will be some of my own speculation about Season 3 based on some of the press releases, and my own theories. I really just wanted to write a cute workplace romance but plot got in the way lol.
> 
> Anyway, this will mostly be Steve/Robin, so if you clicked on this for some of the other pairings, they will be present, just more in the background.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Stranger Things, etc.
> 
> Enjoy!!

"I look  _ridiculous,_ " Steve grumbled to himself, staring at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, "absolutely ridiculous." He shook his head in disbelief at the uniform, before trudging back out into the back room of the ice cream store.

He tried to smile at the manager—he had already forgotten the teenager's name—but it probably looked more like a grimace. Taking his place behind the counter, he groaned inwardly at the line of people who were waiting for their ice cream. "Welcome to Scoops Ahoy, how can I help you?" He forced out, trying not to sound as uncomfortable as he felt in the sailor's costume that was currently being passed off as a uniform.

The day passed by painfully slowly, despite the mass amounts of people that came in and out of the store at any given time. By the time his shift was over, he smelled like vanilla—a scent he know hated with an intense passion—and wanted nothing more than to collapse in his bed and sleep for ten hours. However, the minute he pulled his car into the house's driveway, and saw his father standing in the kitchen window, he remembered why he was going to gladly spend his entire summer working at Scoops Ahoy while the rest of his "friends" partied and prepped for college.

* * *

 _"I see you've gotten your response from Columbia,"_ _his dad gestured towards the open envelope sitting on the corner of Steve's bed._

_"Yeah," the nineteen-year-old muttered, tearing a page from the notebook resting in his lap._

_When it was clear that Steve was done talking, his father picked up the letter, a deep frown creasing his features. "How did you possibly manage to get rejected from my alma mater? I practically had your admission guaranteed! You cannot seriously be so dense and unimpressive that the school—a school I have given thousands of dollars to, I might add—didn't even bother putting you on the waitlist."_

_Steve slammed the notebook shut, losing the struggle to keep the anger off his face. "Sorry to disappoint, Dad, but maybe it's time to face the fact that I'm not Ivy League material."_

_"If you were even halfway competent, I would be holding an acceptance letter right now!" His dad threw the letter on the floor in disgust, turning towards the door but stopping mid-turn. "Well, you always have IU as your backup and after two years there, you can start interning at my company part-time. We can probably secure a full-time job for you within your first year there."_

_"And what if I don't want to work for you?" Steve spit out, jumping off the bed to stand nearly toe-to-toe with his father. "Damn it, Dad, have you ever considered the possibility that I don't want to sell houses for the rest of my life?"_

_His dad's face turned purple with rage, and drew himself up to his full height, although that no longer scared Steve as much as it did when he was a kid. "You will listen to me, boy! I was working a dead-end job when I was your age and had to push myself to the limit to become the man I am today. I will not let you waste your life on a whim. When have you ever had any ambition in your life other than partying every weekend? If you think you can do better than me, what is it you want to study? Huh? What do you want to do with your life?"_

_"I don't know!" Steve shouted, before the anger seemed to rush out of him as he dropped his gaze and hanging his head. "But don't I have the right to figure that out for myself?"_

_His dad scoffed, dismissively waving a hand at the messy room and his son. "I'm sure you'll do a fine job of that, and if you insist on this ridiculous idea of 'figuring it out,' you won't get any help from me."_

_"Fine by me," Steve retorted, slamming the door behind his father, and crashing back onto his bed. He picked up the notebook, but he could no longer focus on the job application any longer and threw it across the room in frustration._ What am I going to do?  _He thought, laying on his back and staring at the ceiling blankly._

* * *

A week into his job at Scoops Ahoy, Steve already had his routine down pat. Every morning he would wake up, avoid his parents and his asshole younger brother at breakfast, drive to the mall, change into his absurd sailor uniform in the ice cream store's bathroom, work for at least eight hours, trying not to yell at all the annoying kids and their parents (who would, in turn, yell at him), go home, avoid his parents and asshole younger brother at dinner, go to sleep.

And repeat.

"Ahoy. Welcome to Scoops Ahoy, how can I help you?" He asked, gritting his teeth and mentally cursing out the sociopath who decided that a costume was the best choice for a uniform.

"Um," the blonde girl stated, placing her palms flat on the countertop and leaning forward slightly. "I'm supposed to be starting today. Is there a manager around here or...?" She trailed off, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"I'll go get him," Steve replied, slightly relieved that the manager had finally though to hire another worker. He only caught a glimpse of her wavy blonde hair and a flash of a smile before he turned towards the back.

Once she had disappeared into the office after Tom cam out to get her, Steve tried to focus on the two elementary-aged kids trying to put themselves into comas by eating at least a gallon of ice cream each. But he was having a hard time forgetting the new girl. Her arrival was the most interesting thing to happen to the shop since the party had stopped by earlier that week... _and she's kind of cute,_ the thought rose to the forefront of his subconscious without warning.

"Mr. Ice Cream Man," one of the kindergarteners started, knocking on the counter. "Umm, Matty isn't feeling too well." He pointed to where his buddy was currently vomiting on the vinyl booths.

All thoughts of his new co-worker were pushed out of his mind, as Steve inwardly groaned and moved to get a towel.  _Correction, the second most interesting thing to happen._

Sadly, cleaning up some kid's ice cream-laced vomit was far from the most disgusting thing he's ever done, but, thankfully, it gave him enough of a distraction from the new girl and why she decided Scoops Ahoy was her best choice for a summer job.

* * *

The walk from her house to the Starcourt took Robin nearly forty minutes, but she was happy for the exercise if it meant she didn't have to listen to her dad preach to her about the benefits of moving to Hawkins, Indiana. She was still pissed at him taking a job in this small time, investigating some laboratory or military base that he refused to tell her about.  _If I have to transfer schools the summer before senior year, the least he could do is tell me why,_ she thought desperately, making her way into Scoops Ahoy's back entrance, brushing past a tired-looking Steve Harrington.

"Late night, Harrington?" She asked, pausing at the bathroom door—she had started changing at work to avoid the looks she would get when she wore her "uniform"outside of the shop.

"The little shits wouldn't let me leave," her coworker grumbled, running a hand through his (seemingly gravity-defying) hair.

Robin chuckled lightly, before ducking into the small bathroom to change. She didn't know who these friends of his that he was always complaining half-heartedly about were, but she sorely wanted to meet them.

 _You can't think like that,_ she reprimanded her thoughts as she was changing into her uniform. Tugging the skirt down, to no avail, Robin remembered all of the times her father had moved them just after she had managed to find friends in whatever town they were moving  _from._   _It's no use getting attached to the cute guy at work or his friends, because after a year, I'll be off to college. Loneliness is the best idea for me right now._ She walked out of the bathroom, schooling her features into a blandly cheery mask and taking her place next to Harrington at the counter, ignoring the slight fluttering in her stomach.

Almost a week had gone by and she realized that she had fallen into a strange routine in Hawkins. She'd wake up, grab a little something for breakfast, walk for almost an hour to the mall, trade some hollow conversation with Harrington as they both tried not to roll their eyes at every idiotic customer that asked them for some ridiculous flavor that would surely taste horrible if it actually existed, laugh at Harrington's jokes and complaints as they cleaned up the shop, quietly eat dinner with her stoic father.

And repeat.

"I swear, there's ice cream on the damn ceiling," Steve groaned, his hands on his hips and his head tilted back.

Robin followed his line of sight, and sure enough, there was a smear of Strawberry Swirl on the ceiling. She shook her head in disbelief. "How are we even going to clean that? Is there a ladder here?"

"Maybe in the back?" He said distractedly, climbing up onto one of the booth's seats and straining to reach the ceiling.

"I'll check. Try not to fall before I get back," she made her way towards the back office, but stopped when she heard her coworker start cursing violently. "Harrington?" Robin called, jogging back the way she came, hoping he hadn't actually fallen or something similarly worrisome.

However,  when she turned the corner, she saw Harrington—who was thankfully now standing on the seat anymore. His arms were crossed, and he was talking with two girls and another guy, all of them the same age as him. She ducked behind the ice cream counter, hoping to catch a bit of their conversation.  _Maybe these are the friends he's always "complaining" about. Besides, I'm not really spying._ She convinced herself half-heartedly,  _I'm just listening. And even if I am, this is probably one of the more exciting things to happen since I've been here._

"Aww look at his little uniform, Tommy," one of the girls said, her voice high and mocking. "I didn't know King Steve had joined the navy."

"Makes sense," the boy, Tommy, responded in a nasally voice. "Everyone knows sailors are all a bunch of queers."

"You know," the third voice— _the last girl,_ Robin thought—added, as the others laughed, "he probably enjoys looking like a middle schooler since he spends so much time with them."

"Hey," Harrington's angry voice finally interjected. She could picture him silently taking the taunts about himself, just to get rid of the awful trio, but they must have crossed a line. "Don't bring  _them_ into your sorry attempt at being assholes. Now, if you don't mind, we're closed right now, so you can get the hell out."

She heard the slight rustling of clothes as the three left the shop, the door slamming behind them. Robin stood up slowly, hoping to get to the back room before Harrington realized that she had been eavesdropping.

Unfortunately, Robin didn't get very far before he turned around and spotted her. "You heard that, didn't you?"

"Sorry," she apologized lamely, wringing her hands together, but refusing to look down, instead studying the string of emotions that crossed his face. "I didn't know that they were...I thought they were your friends. You know, the ones you're always talking about."

Harrington chuckled darkly, bringing his eyes up to meet hers. "Sad thing is...they used to be. I used to be willing to die for their approval."

"Slight exaggeration, I'm sure," Robin said gently, taking a tentative step forward, but the look in his brown eyes and a raised eyebrow said that he wasn't being overly dramatic. "Well, if it counts for anything, I can't see it,"

"No, I was an asshole, just like them," he interjected dryly, his eyes turning hard. "I thought I was the king of high school."

"Yeah, well, what king works at an ice cream shop?" She joked, nudging him with her elbow, flashing him a brief smile. He seemed to relax, smirking slightly in return, and some of the anxiety and awkwardness lifted from the room and was replaced with a kind of tension that Robin didn't want to dwell on. "Now, come on," she nodded towards the ceiling, deciding that having a bit of fun seemed like the best way to break that tension, "if I get on your shoulders, I could totally reach that mess."

Steve sent her a bewildered look but broke out into a grin as he bent slightly, clearly preparing himself to lift her. She was the one to climb on the booth this time, and situated herself on his shoulders, ignoring the way is hands gripped her thighs tightly. She was now close enough to the ceiling that she could put one hand flat on it and use the rag in the other to wipe off the gooey ice cream.

"You almost done?" Came Steve's voice, his grip tightening on her thighs and his voice sounding a bit strange. "Cause you're not exactly  _light._ "

She rolled her eyes and scoffed, but she was actually finished, so she swung her leg over his shoulder, using the momentum of her actions to rotate her whole body so she was now facing and sliding down Harrington's front.

"Jesus, a little warning next time." He grunted, his hands skimming up from her legs to her waist, as she was sliding—falling really—and steadying her when her feet finally hit the floor.

"That's what three years of cheerleading bought me," she smirked, raising an eyebrow and tossing her hair. "And what makes you think they'll be a next time?" Robin shut down his snickers with a thoroughly nonplussed look, trying to ignore the tension that had reappeared and coalesced in the atmosphere between her and the guy whose hands were still resting lightly on her waist.

"Well," Steve replied cockily, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, "that is a highly effective technique for getting ice cream off the ceiling."

Robin just laughed and stepped out off his grip, trying to keep a look of playfulness and levity on her face. In reality, however, her stomach was roiling, and her hips and legs were tingling slightly from where his hands had been.  _No use getting attached,_ she thought sarcastically to herself, running a hand through her hair in disbelief.

* * *

Steve had his chin propped in one hand as he leaned against the counter, looking out blankly at the empty ice cream store. Unsurprisingly, once the Starcourt was open, there wasn't much foot traffic other than the occasional group of teenagers or families that found themselves at the mall one rainy afternoon.

Hawkins was not a town that particularly liked change.

He was staring into space, replaying the latest in a string of conversations in which his father attempted to get Steve to reconsider working for him, when Robin groaned tiredly, laying her whole upper body on the ice cream counter. She put her head on top of her crossed arms, face down, as if she was taking a nap.

"This could not get more boring," came the muffled complaint. Steve could only manage a small snort of laughter, turning his mind towards a more interesting person than his father: his coworker.

Robin turned her head towards him, closing her blue eyes and exaggeratedly yawning. Her blonde hair fell in loose waves to her shoulder, her hat had been knocked off her head, and her pale complexion was starting to be marked by the freckles brought out by the sun.

 _She really is pretty cute,_ the thought came abruptly to his mind, scattering his thoughts.

"Is one of you the manager?" A curt voice cut through Steve's train of thought. The man standing in front of the counter looked like pictures he'd seen of Will's dad—salt and pepper hair, thin, wearing a leather jacket, and with the smarmiest possible look on his face.

"No, but I can go grab him real quick," Robin said, standing up straight with frightening speed and ducking into the back office,

Steve started sizing up the man, from the way he leaned against the counter as if he owned the place, to the way he looked at Robin's retreating form with a smug on his face. His blood was boiling—it was like this random man was the perfect combination of his father, Billy Hargrove, and every thick-headed kid he used to call a fiend that now mocked him for his job.

Thankfully, Robin and Tom emerged from the back office, before he could spiral any further.

Apparently, the mayor's office wanted to put together a commercial for the mall "in order to gain community interest in the new Starcourt expansion," and wanted "fresh, young, and attractive faces" to appear. He definitely didn't like the way the man's gaze had lingered on Robin when he mentioned the appearance of the people he wanted for the video.

"Are you going to do it?" Robin asked, as the two of them were cleaning up the store for the night.

Steve sighed, "Probably, I could certainly use the money." He'd been thinking about it all day, but he knew all along that he'd end up sacrificing his pride to make a couple extra bucks.

College, even if it was just community college, was going to be expensive without his parents' savings. "What about you?"

"I don't know, the guys was kind of creeping me out," she said, chewing on her lower lip and with skepticism in her eyes. "Besides, since when does the mayor get involved in promoting a mall? Doesn't it seem a little weird to you?"

"I guess," Steve drew out the last word, even though he was thinking:  _that's not even in the top ten._ "But come on...you can't let me be in this thing alone. I'll look like such a dork!"

Robin sighed, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes, and putting her hands on her hips. "Ugh, fine. I'll do it."

He shot her the full, fifty-watt, "King Steve" smile in gratitude, feeling a swell of pride when her cheeks reddened, and she looked down, playing with the hem of her sailor's vest.

"You better not make me regret this, Harrington," she threatened, walking towards the bathroom to get changed.

"Thank you!" He called to her, the smile dimming, but only to a grin, as he finished wiping down the counter.

* * *

"I think that had to be  _the dumbest_ thing I've done to date," Robin groaned, her cheeks were quickly turning red as she remembered the ridiculous commercial shoot. The only thing that gave her any iota of comfort was that Steve had been just as stilted as herself.

He snorted, pulling on his jacket and leading the way out the door. "Second that...and I've done some bizarre things in my life."

"Ooh, like what?" She asked, stopping as they reached his car, and leaning one hip against the trunk.

"Uhh, just the normal stupid high school shit," he responded, ducking his head to dump his bag in the backseat.

"There's stories in that hair," Robin teased, glancing at the boy, her eyes glinting with mischief and laughter as she pointed at his carefully mussed up hair.

"You think?" He replied coolly, looking at her over his shoulder, a fake-confused look on his face. But then he flashed her that beaming smile that had her feeling like some ridiculous damsel character in a Judith McNaught novel, with her legs turning to jelly and her stomach filling with butterflies. "See ya' tomorrow Robin."

"Later Steve,"  she called, starting down the path to her house.

The next day, the commercial was still haunting her as she walked into the Starcourt and the ice cream shop. Everywhere she turned, she saw something that reminded her of the shoot, from the parking lot to the food court. For once, it looked like she had made it to the store before Steve, as it was only Tom in the office when she arrived. She quickly changed, before starting to get the store ready for opening.

Fifteen minutes into her shift, Steve still hadn't shown up and she was starting to worry—he was never late to work. Thankfully, Tom didn't know or didn't care, and there weren't too many customers, so she could handle the front all by herself. She was chewing on her bottom lip when her coworker finally made an appearance...with what looked like six preteens in tow.

"Hey," she drew the word out, looking between the kids and Steve himself with a questioning look on her face. "What's...?"

"Don't even ask," he shook his head, not even trying to hide the smile that spread across his face.

"Wasn't gonna'," she said, holding her hands up in mock-surrender.

Robin looked at the group in front of her, all of them continuing to talk over each other at increasingly louder volumes. She snapped her fingers, trying to cut through the chatter. "Hey! Who wants some ice cream?"

That seemed to get their attention as they started throwing their spare change and cash on to the counter. "Cough it up!" A stockier, curly-haired boy demanded, waving a hand dramatically at his friends.

She grinned at the group, shaking her head at the thought of Steve trying to corral the band of preteens. Once it looked like all of their money was on the counter, Robin took only a couple dollars from the pile, winking at the group before putting them in the register. "That should just about cover it," she declared, reaching for a bowl. "Now, what does everyone want?"

"Two, no,  _three_ scoops of rocky road," the curly-haired boy said with a toothy smile, holding up three fingers to make sure she got the point.

She glanced over her shoulder to where Steve was starting to scoop the ice cream, smiling gratefully. One banana split, one vanilla scoop, a chocolate cone, and a mint chocolate waffle cone later, all six preteens were sitting at the counter, happily enjoying their ice cream and teasing Steve.

"You kids should be thanking Robin that she ever let all of you in the store if you're gonna' make all this ruckus," Steve reprimanded weakly, attempting to take the bowl from the curly-haired one, Dustin she had learned, but without any real effort behind it.

Lucas snorted violently from where he was sharing the banana split with the red-headed Max. "Are you forty?" He choked out in between breaths.

"Honestly, Steve," Mike interrupted, letting El take a bite of his chocolate cone. "Did you seriously just say,  _ruckus?_ I don't even think  _my dad_ says that anymore. My dad!"

"Not the point," Steve said exasperatedly, throwing his hands in the air.

Will laughed, his vanilla ice cream almost finished. That seemed to break the floodgates as the entire group then burst into fits of giggles and laughter. Even Robin couldn't help herself, letting out a small chuckle at the way Steve seemed to be steadily turning a darker shade of red by the minute.

He muttered curses under his breath, but his stern tone was undercut by the humorous glint in his brown eyes.

"So, how's everyone's summer going?" Robin asked, trying to steer the conversation towards something more neutral—and she wanted to know more about how Steve came to be friends with this group. However, her question simply got most of the guys, plus Max, fighting about which arcade game was the best, and teasing Dustin about his crush on the older lifeguard at the pool.

"You should know," Steve said, leaning his head closer to hers, "that asking them anything, like seriously  _anything,_ eventually turns into...this."

Robin laughed, glancing at the group—at the way Mike and El were always touching in some way, even if it was just their pinkies brushing together; at how Will would laugh quietly at whatever ridiculous story was being told and how Dustin would usually be the one telling those stories, complete with gestures, imitations, and odd growls; and at the way Lucas and Max's way of flirting seemed to be pelting one another with spitballs. "Come on," she smiled, "don't you remember being that age? Hanging by the pool, not a care in the world?"

Steve gave her his ridiculously attractive smile in response, before going to collect the empty bowls in front of some of his friends.  _Cute, funny, and like a big brother to all these kids? Well, preteens...but still._ Robin thought to herself with a grin.  _Not getting attached is going so well._

* * *

"So, how's your girlfriend, Steve?" Dustin asked, waggling his eyebrows comically.

"Shut up, Henderson. And pay attention," Steve said, shoving the younger boy's curly head towards the woods behind the Byers' house.

Jonathan had called him last week, saying how his brother was getting a feeling that "something was coming" and dreaming of the Upside-Down version of their backyard. And so, while Nancy and Jonathan were looking into the possibility of the bastards at the lab experimenting with the town's well-being once again, Steve had volunteered to lead the stakeout mission. Every night for the past week, he and one or two of the kids hunkered down in his car, keeping a close watch on the house. He had needed to turn the lights and engine off, since Mrs. Byers would probably chase him off with an axe if she knew how her boys' friends were likely stressing Will out and what they were all putting themselves through...again.

This system had led to him being perpetually tired at work, as he was running on about zero sleep, but these kids didn't have many people that would stay up all night to catch an interdimensional monster. And he couldn't let them go on this stakeout by themselves—which they would absolutely do if he wasn't there.

Never let anyone say Steve Harrington wasn't a damn good babysitter.

"Come on," Dustin groaned, flopping dramatically against the seat. "We need  _something_ to talk about if we're going to be here all night."

"Yeah, well can you pick something  _other_ than my nonexistent love life?" Steve snapped, refusing to meet his friend's eyes, continuing to stare at the wooded backyard.

Without warning, he started to remember the time the party had come to torment him once again at Scoops Ahoy, but Robin stepped in, distracting them with the new jukebox. She had even managed to get Will to participate in the impromptu dance-off.

"Oh my God, you like her!" Dustin exclaimed, letting loose one of his ridiculous purrs.

The older boy rolled his eyes, giving Dustin a light shove on his shoulder. "I don't like Robin, okay. So, lay off."

"I didn't say I was talking about Robin. I mean, I was, but I never said her name."

 _Shit,_ Steve thought, eyes widening as Dustin started cackling. "Shut up, Henderson, you're going to wake up Mrs. Byers and I'm going to let you explain all of this to her." Thankfully, that seemed to stop the conversation in its tracks.

But that didn't mean the memory of Robin dancing to  _Rio_ disappeared from his thoughts. In fact, it was still on his mind even when he walked into Scoops Ahoy the next morning.

"You okay, Steve?" Came her voice, filtering through the sleep-deprived haze of his mind.

"Huh? Yeah..." he started, but was cut off when he nearly ran into the closed bathroom door.  _Okay,_ he thought,  _maybe going four straight days without sleeping was not the best idea._

"Sure you are," she said, raising a dark blonde eyebrow.

Steve let out a noncommittal grunt, but thankfully she didn't make any more comments, she just gave a slight chuckle and went to set up the front of the shop.

After changing, he took his spot next to her, Robin shooting him a concerned glance, but still not saying anything, even though he could see the curiosity in her bright blue eyes. It was certainly going to be a long day at work, and not just because of the sleep deprivation. It was Dustin's words still ringing in his head:  _I didn't say I was talking about Robin._

* * *

Dinner at Robin's house was usually a somber affair, but today it was especially tense, as her father was eating with a stiffness she hadn't seen in him for a long time.

"How's the investigation going, Dad?" She asked innocently, making sure to keep an air of disinterest on her face. Steve had been acting strangely the past few times she'd worked with him, combined with the way the mayor's office was so invested in the mall, and her father's presumably stalling investigation...something was going on in this town, and she wanted to know what.

"It's nothing you need to concern yourself with," he snapped, standing up from the table. "Now, I've got a fair amount of work to do, so if you'll excuse me."

Robin nodded, pushing her own plate away from her, and blowing a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes. Her dad icing her out of his life was nothing new, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something in this town felt... _off._ It was like the feeling she got when someone was watching her, but when she turned around, there was no one there. Scanning the small kitchen-slash-living room, just to double-check that no one was lurking in the corners, her eyes fell on her dad's work coat still hanging on the hook by the door.  _It's a long shot,_ she thought, quietly getting up from the table.

The big bag overcoat looked like something a Bond villain might wear, but there might be something useful in its pockets. Unfortunately, the only things she found before her dad briefly re-emerged—and she had to act like she was just getting up from the table—was a pocketknife, and some kind of readout from Hawkins National Laboratory.

She stuck the two items in her pocket and dashed up the stairs, ducking past her dad and quickly closing the door to her room behind her. Robin turned the lock and pressed her ear to the door. Once she heard the door to her dad's office close with a soft  _click,_ she threw herself on the bed, crossing her legs as she did so. She dropped the pocketknife into the top drawer of her nightstand, before turning to the readout. Robin didn't understand most of what was on the sheet, but it appeared to deal with the lab's electricity usage, and one thing was clear—the lights were on in Hawkins Lab.

* * *

 Steve held his head in his hands, resting his elbows on the counter and trying not to grimace. He must have looked hungover, as his eyes were clamped shut, his hair was limp and greasy under his sailor's hat, and there were dark circles under his eyes that made him look like a skeleton. Another night of staking out the Byers' had come and gone, and this time there was the added challenge of dealing with the sickening sweetness that was Mike and El. They were quieter than Lucas or Dustin, but the looks they gave each other when they thought he wasn't looking...well, they were just so damn cute and in love it was distracting.

And the radio that kept playing the same six songs was not helping. It was actually slowly driving him insane.

"The music here is shit," Robin mumbled. It was like she could read his mind.

"It wouldn't be so bad if they played more than eight songs," he agreed. "Or just turned the volume down a little."

Robin chuckled lightly, wincing as the next song started playing. "They could at least put on some Bowie or New Order to break it up."

Steve looked up at her, studying the way her nose scrunched up in distaste as she listened to the pop music that dominated their every day. "You would really get along with Jonathan."

"Who?" She asked, turning to look at him. He really hoped that the sleep deprivation wasn't making him see things, because he was starting to like the way her cheeks turned pink when she caught his eyes.

"Uh..." he stalled, "Will's older brother. And my ex's  _current_ boyfriend."

She winced in sympathy, her smirking lips tugging downwards into a slight frown. "Yikes, how did that happen?"

 _You really don't want to know,_ he thought. But before he could respond, it was cut off by the cacophony of the party entering the store.

"Hi Steve, Robin," Will said, as everyone settled into their usual spots at the counter.

"Wow, you guys look terrible," she replied with a light laugh. "Late night partying it up?"

"Hey!" Dustin interrupted, "To have you know, we did fight the Orc King of Raymiene yesterday."

Robin nodded in understanding, a pretty smile coming onto her face. He realized that this was one of the reasons he liked her—as a friend. She completely accepted the preteens' nerdiness and was always willing to make them feel comfortable and normal.

"Did Mike's mom seem off to you guys last night?" Lucas asked, causing Mike, El, and Will to sit up straight,  apprehensive looks on all of the party's faces.

"Off?" El asked, her eyebrows furrowing in mild confusion.

"It means not right, weird," Mike explained quickly. "And yeah, I guess. She's been like that for a while, at least a week."

 _That's probably around the time when Will had that nightmare,_ Steve thought, glancing at the party members and saw that they had all made the same connection.  _Shit, this cannot be good._

"She was kind of like how Will would look last year when...you know," Mike realized, muttering a string of curses under his breath. "I have to get back home!" He dashed out the door, El shooting her friends an apologetic look, but hot on her boyfriend's heels, both of their ice cream bowls forgotten on the counter.

"Is he going to be okay?" Robin asked worriedly, but no one had an easy response for her.

"Sorry! Gotta' go," Will apologized sincerely, dragging Dustin and Max out by their arms, Lucas trailing right behind.

"Does this have something to do with Hawkins Laboratory?"

Steve turned his head towards the blonde so fast, he felt a couple bones in his neck crack painfully. "How...how...?" He stuttered, his eyes wide and his mind searching for a logical explanation but coming up short.

"Well," she started, putting a hand on her hip and turning to face him, "something's going on in this town. My dad is supposed to be investigating the lab—which is supposed to be shut down—but someone's still using it. The electricity is  _on._ "

 _That cannot be good,_ he thought with a groan. "Look, Robin," Steve said, turning towards her and leaning in slightly. "Stay away from the lab, okay? Stop looking into them, trust me, you don't want to get on their radar."

"What the hell?" Robin demanded, her voice thick—with anger or hurt he couldn't tell. "You don't get to tell me what I can't do,  _especially_ if you won't tell me what's going on, got it?"

His blood started to boil, the lack of sleep making it really difficult to hold on to his temper. "I'm just...you don't know what you're getting into. This is some dangerous, freaky shit that you don't want to deal with." He looked at her, hoping that she understood that he was just trying to keep her safe. Robin was normal, and she didn't need to be brought into the weirdness that was his life, or those kids' lives.

She must have seen something else on his face, because she poked a finger into his chest and her eyes narrowed into slits. "You know something about this don't you?"

"Just, just," he stammered, but the look on her face said she wasn't going to quit. It was that look that reminded him a bit of Nancy and the fact that it was all this same craziness that drove her away. He was  _not_ going to blow this chance the universe was giving him with Robin. "You shouldn't go getting yourself wrapped up in this; it's not safe."

Robin just narrowed her eyes even more, but didn't say anything, just turning back to the front to greet the customers walking through the door.

"Thank you," Steve whispered gratefully.

* * *

Two days after he had told her to stop looking into Hawkins Lab, Robin was nearing the end of her patience. Her dad was stonewalling her, but now that she knew something was wrong, she felt a need to get to the bottom of it. Steve had seemed so shaken up about whatever he knew, that she had started carrying the pocketknife in her bag.

Robin clutched her bag a little tighter when she heard the clanking of metal and a voice coming from inside the shop. Thankfully, as she opened the door, she heard Steve's muffled voice cursing vehemently in the back office.

"Everything good, Harrington?" She called, scanning the small back area for her coworker...who was nowhere to be found.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came his voice from the front of the store.

"Okay," she replied, drawing the word out, "I'll be right there." Robin quickly changed in the bathroom, wishing—not for the first time, or even the tenth—that her skirt was just a  _little bit_ longer. "Where's Tom? Did he just decide not to show up or...Steve, what happened?"

He quickly ducked to hide his face, but she had seen the black eye that was already forming and the cuts on his chin and cheek.

"It's nothing," he snapped, curling his hands into fists on top of the counter.

Robin didn't even bother responding, simply grabbing his forearm, and started dragging him towards the bathroom.

"Come on, Robin," he protested, "it's just a couple scratches. Just let it go."

She smirked, but without any real feeling behind it. "Don't even try to pull that tough guy act with me, Steve."

He sighed in response, letting her steer him so he could sit on the closed toilet seat.

Grabbing an antiseptic wipe and dampening a paper towel under warm warm water, Robin turned back to him, suddenly aware of how little space there actually was to move in the small room. She took off his hat, just so it wouldn't fall off while she was cleaning him up, barely resisting the urge to run her hand through his hair. However, she couldn't stop herself from lightly rubbing a thumb against his cheek as she dabbed at the deceptively deep cut that ran across his cheekbone.

"Sorry about this," she apologized when she saw him wince almost imperceptibly as she cleaned the cut.

"'S okay," he shrugged nonchalantly. "It doesn't hurt too much anymore."

"Should I be worried?" Robin murmured, taking a band-aid from the box underneath the sink. "Or just assume the worst?"

Steve arched an eyebrow, a lopsided smirk playing at his lips, "Actually, the worst you can think of is probably not that bad."

She grinned dimly in return, choosing not to tell him about her entire childhood being surrounded by solders and a distant war. She stuck the band-aid to his cheek, making sure it laid flat against his skin. "It has something to do with the Lab, doesn't it?"

He sighed, his eyes darting away from hers, before returning with the inevitable answer in them.

"You don't have to..." she breathed, suddenly acutely aware of the closeness between her and Steve.  _God, I might as well be sitting in his lap,_ she thought, fighting the heat rising in her cheeks as she searched his face—but for what, she couldn't tell.

"Now, am  _I_ going to have to be worried," he asked teasingly, a confident grin coming over his face.

"Worried about what?" Robin retorted, cocking an eyebrow expectantly.

"How you know how to do all this," he explained, pointing to the band-aid on his cheek.

She snorted, her own grin widening into a true smile. "I bet ten-year-olds know to put a band-aid on a cut."

"Maybe, but not many would know about how the wipe-thing would sting. Or jump into action at seeing a black eye." His eyes seemed to bore into hers, and her cheeks burned at the intensity in their brown depths, trying not to be distracted by the injuries scattered across his face.

Robin finally broke eye contact, wringing her hands like some dithering old woman. "I grew up on army bases, you pick up on those kinds of things there. Besides, I'm sure someone would've pointed it out to you at some point today."

He stood up, and she quickly backed away, but since there wasn't far to go, she ended up stumbling into the sink. "Well, thanks for being the first," he murmured, his hands coming up to grip her waist, pulling her flush against him, her own hands instinctively going to rest on his shoulders.

Robin looked up, struck speechless by the tension that had suddenly filled the sliver of space that remained between them—the same kind that had been there, lingering in the background, since the day she climbed on his shoulders to wipe strawberry ice cream off the ceiling. Steve's grip tightened ever so slightly, his fingers curling into her hips, bunching her skirt, and he looked at her with a strange expression in his eye.

"Like electricity," he breathed, but so softly that Robin wasn't quite sure that she hadn't imagined it.

"Harrington! Robin!" Came Tom's voice, accompanied by a banging on the bathroom door. "Nothing funny better be going on in there, we're opening!"

"Be right there!" Steve shouted back, never looking away from her face. "Until next time," he said to her, still looking at her intently.

She stepped away from him, although she was quite reluctant to do so. "And what makes you think there's a next time?" Robin teased, but a grin spread over her lips, and she was sure her cheeks were turning a bright, bright red.

Steve just winked in response, but wincing when he must have realized he had winked with his blackened eye.

"You should ice that," she nodded towards his eye, half in the bathroom, half out, not really willing to return to her boring job quite yet.

"Good thing I work at an ice cream shop," he replied with a laugh.

Robin shook her head, barely containing a giggle of her own. "That's not what I meant. You really are something else." With that, a racing heart, and a stomach twisted in knots, she turned away and headed towards the front of the store.

* * *

He could not believe Nancy had asked him to do this.

In the aftermath of the fight with some monster that had appeared in the Byers' backyard from the Upside-Down, Steve might have let slip to his ex and her current boyfriend that "the girl he worked with knew that something was going on at the lab," which Nancy had apparently heard as: "Let's ask her to hang out and investigate another dimension with us."

Steve ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up even more than normal, thinking to himself,  _I can't believe I'm about to do this._

He felt a nudge in his side and turned to see Robin shooting him an expectant look. "Come on," he sighed, waving her towards the back entrance of the newspaper office.

The two of them had raced over from the Starcourt on their lunch break, hoping to catch Nancy and Jonathan at the end of their break as well. Apparently, the investigative duo had some new information about how the Upside-Down was creeping back into Hawkins.

Steve knocked on the back door, suddenly incredibly self-conscious at the fact that both him and Robin were still wearing their sailor costumes-slash-uniforms. He felt his neck burn red-hot when Nancy was the one to open the door, quickly ushering them into the small back office.

"I'm Robin," the blonde introduced herself, extending a hand, with a thin smile on her face.

"Nancy. Jonathan is developing some of the pictures right now, but he'll be right back," the other girl replied, shaking Robin's hand quickly, before shuffling some of the papers on her desk with a slightly manic kind of energy.

"So, what did you need to tell us?" Steve asked, crossing his arms, and not even trying to keep the scowl off his face.

Before his ex could respond, Jonathan bursts into the back office, a stack of photographs in his arms. "There's at least a dozen different people who are..." he started, but trailed off when he caught sight of Robin. He turned towards his girlfriend, stuttering quietly, his eyes darting to Robin and Steve every so often.

"She works with me at Scoops," Steve cut in, although immediately realized that was probably obvious based on their matching outfits. "She can help us."

"I want to know what's going on around here," Robin interjected, her hands on her hips.

He couldn't resist a smile at the way she walked directly over to Jonathan's desk and studied the evidence, seemingly without a care in the world. Steve looked to his friends, raising an eyebrow as if to say:  _hey, what can you do?_

"Okay, what am I looking at?" He asked, since the pictures Jonathan had taken just seemed to be of various people that lived in Hawkins. The new dark-haired lifeguard Dusting was crushing on—he's pretty sure her name was Heather. Mike's mom. Jonathan's boss. Billy freaking Hargrove.

"These are all of the people we think are affected by the..." Nancy trailed off, but the  _Mind Flayer_ was clearly implied. "They're not following their normal routines; their behavior seems different, more random."

"And you guys think this has to do with the Lab?" Robin asked. Steve could practically see the wheels turning in her mind. "Shit, I knew I should've brought it."

"Brought what?" Jonathan asked, as both his head and Nancy's snapped towards the blonde.

"My dad is supposed to be looking into why Hawkins Lab was shut down," she explained, talking quickly, "but I found the electrical statement, and the output is way too high for a lab that's supposed to be closed."

"Do you think you could get that for us?" Jonathan asked, sounding frantic, but hopeful.

Robin nodded, looking between Nancy and Jonathan, a smile dancing on her lips. "Definitely, but I can also try to get a more recent one."

"Byers!" The booming voice of Jonathan's boss called, his heavy footsteps coming steadily closer.

"Let's go," Steve said, grabbing Robin's arm and dragging her towards the door. Nancy's panicked expression was enough to make him want to get Robin out of the office as quickly as possible. "We'll talk to you guys soon!"

Nancy nodded, scooping up all of the photographs, giving Jonathan a peck on the lips, and following the other two out the door. "Thanks for the help, Robin," she said.

"Yeah, no problem," the blonde replied, crossing her arms and grinning uncertainly. "I'll try and get that readout tonight."

"Sorry for dragging you into this craziness," Nancy replied, shaking her head in disbelief. "Steve shouldn't have brought you here."

"It's not his fault," Robin interjected, and he felt a surge of pride at the defensiveness that underscored her words. "I practically begged him to involve me. And I would've found a way to get mixed up in all of this anyway."

Nancy simply nodded, looking between Robin and Steve, a slow smile spreading across her face. "Okay, well, Steve knows how to reach me, and I think I'll be seeing you around."

Steve waved goodbye to Nancy, opening the door to his car. "We need to get back to the Starcourt, like now."

By the end of the week, he had spent an uncomfortable amount of time with his ex—who he had a pretty weird and complicated history with—and the girl he was actually starting to fall for. It was all getting way too confusing for him.

"So, Robin's really cool," Nancy said, sliding into the passenger seat next to him, grinning mischievously.

"Yeah," he agreed, looking at his hands. The four teenagers were giving the party a night off and were staking out the Lab, trying to see who (or what) was still using it. "Jonathan seems to be getting along with her."

"Yeah," Nancy smiled, looking at her boyfriend adoringly. "They both have the same weird taste in music. Besides, he needs some more friends. Don't...don't tell him I said that."

Steve chuckled, looking over to where Robin was chatting with Jonathan, the two of them sitting on the hood of Steve's car. He felt a tug of jealousy in his chest, and the thought flared up in his mind that they would make the perfect "alternative" couple. And if he didn't know better, he might think that Byers would take this girl from him too. It was a selfish, borderline cruel thought, but Steve couldn't help it.

But then, Jonathan looked over his shoulder, smiling unabashedly at Nancy, the two trading looks that were filled with more love than Steve had ever seen his own parents express to one another in his whole life. After trying so hard to hold onto Nancy, and seeing his love be returned with indifference, he really didn't have much confidence that Robin might like him the same way he liked her—but, damn it, he hoped she might give him a chance. he shook his head at his thoughts, running a hand through his hair.

He saw Nancy smile in understanding, as if she could see the realization he had just come to like it was written on his face.

A knock broke him out of his thoughts, and looking up, Steve saw Robin tapping on his windshield, a bright smile on her face. Her blonde hair was darkening as the rain started falling, pouring really, with no warning.

"Get in," Steve called, waving an arm out the window, before turning the keys. He shot a grin at Robin as she climbed into the seat behind him, Jonathan sliding behind Nancy.

"Let's go," Robin said, tapping a wet hand on his shoulder. "We're not going see anything if it keeps raining like this."

Throwing a glance over his shoulder, he thought,  _Damn, she is_ really  _pretty._ Her hair all plastered to her face and neck, soaking through her white tee, and her blue eyes dancing in the darkness of his car, their faces only a breath away from each other, Steve knew right then that he cared about her as much more than just a work friend. After all, anyone who willingly threw themselves into investigating a shadowy government organization in the dead of night was pretty cool in his mind.

* * *

A splash of water crashed over her knee, and Robin held her book over her head, shrieking playfully. She glared at Dustin and Steve,  shading her face with her hand and flipping the two the bird. When Max and El had asked her to come to the pool for the Fourth of July Blow-Out Bash with the rest of the party, she only agreed if she could sit by the side, stick her feet in, and read her book. However, she was only four chapters into  _The Hunt for Red October,_ and her friends were doing their very best to distract her from her reading.

What she wouldn't admit to anyone, was that she had barely read a word in over half an hour, ever since Steve had taken his shirt off and jumped in the pool. She could only pray that her reddening cheeks could be explained by the heat and sun, and  _not_ because she was checking out Steve Harrington.

"Be careful!" She yelled concernedly over to Max and El, each of whom were climbing onto their respective boyfriend's shoulders for a game of chicken.

"You're not our babysitter," Mike shot back, at the same time Lucas shouted, "Only Steve can say shit like that!"

"Yeah, well, he's busy right now," Robin called, waving a hand to where Steve was having a splash fight with Dustin and Will. "I'm your substitute make-sure-the-kids-don't-die person!" That merely got a laugh out of the couples as they started to grapple with one another.

Robin smiled, turning back to her book, the sun beating on her neck. She knew that she would have at least a dozen more freckles by the end of the day, but it would totally be worth it. Hanging out with the party made her feel, for the first time since she had come to this town, like she had good friends, and she was...content.

"Oh shit," she heard Max yell, followed by a splash. When she turned, the redhead had fallen off Lucas's shoulders and was gesturing towards the lifeguard's station. A blond guy, probably around Steve's age, with a truly atrocious mullet, was chatting up the new lifeguard.  _Both of them were in the photos Jonathan took,_ she realized, her heart beginning to race. But, it sank to her stomach as she saw the way he would glance towards Max and Lucas, and Steve with thinly veiled malice.

She started to stand up, shaking the water from her legs and closing her book, moving into more of a crouch. Robin looked back at Max, who was looking at the guy with fear in her eyes, Lucas and Mike, who were trying to comfort her, and El, who was staring at him intensely. Basically, all the signs that this new guy was bad news and had probably done something awful to these kids.

"Steve," she hissed, beckoning her coworker closer to her.

"What's up?" He swam over, flipping his hair like all guys do, so it was half-stuck to his forehead, and half-sticking up in the air. Robin definitely wasn't distracted even a little bit by his stupidly attractive, smirking, shirtlessness.

 _I'm making approximately zero sense,_ she thought, but gestured towards the guy, who was now eyeing Steve like the latter was something less than dirt.

"Who's that?" She asked, looking at the blond out of the corner of her eye.

Steve muttered a string of curses, pushing himself out of the pool next to her, water dripping down his chest and abs. He grabbed a towel, rubbing it over his hair once, before hanging it around his shoulders. "I'll be right back. Watch the kids," he finished, flashing her a look that stopped her protests in her throat.

"Are you going to be okay?" She asked worriedly, crossing her arms in front of her stomach, as if that could stop the nervousness and dread settling there.

Steve nodded, his eyes hard and squeezing her shoulder lightly as he started walking over to the lifeguard station. She sat back down at the edge of the pool, opened her book to a random page, but was simply pretending to read, while keeping Steve and the lurker in her peripheral vision and the rest of her attention on the party. all six of the kids were huddled in a circle towards the side of the pool, as far away from the blond guy as they could. Chewing on her lower lip, she turned to watch Steve confront him, the latter who was clearly drunk and now gesturing wildly.

She couldn't make out anything the two were saying, but from Steve's tense body language, she knew it couldn't be a pleasant conversation.

"Don't think this is the last of it, Harrington," the blond called loudly, shoving a finger at Steve's chest.

"Noted, now get the hell out of here, Hargrove," Steve retorted, turning back without another glance, making his way back over to her.

"Everything okay?" Robin asked, scanning his face worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm good," he replied with a smirk, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw his face fall and he rubbed the back of his neck.

She nodded, closing her book, but when she looked over towards Hargrove, he caught her eye. She refused to look away, even as Hargrove looked from her to Steve, and a slow smile spread over his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I will try to have the second half of this fic up within a week or so, but I make no promises because I'll be studying abroad until early February. But, don't worry, it is all written, and will be posted within the month at the very latest.
> 
> Also, please let me know what you think of this fic, I feel like this is a really weird pair to be pre-shipping, but I can't help myself! As always, I appreciate all kudos, comments, bookmarks, etc.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I actually got chapter two up within a relatively short timespan!! Just a quick warning, the first half of this chapter has some mild violence and Billy Hargrove being Billy Hargrove (but nothing worse than what is in the show).
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
> 
> Enjoy!!

Digging his keys out of his back pocket, Steve turned to look back at the darkened windows of Starcourt Mall. He felt bad leaving Robin to close the store by herself, but he  _had_ nearly run into the counter six times that day, so he welcomed the chance to leave early and get at least half an hour's worth of extra sleep. Nancy and Jonathan were taking over the stakeout for the night, giving the kids—and him—a much-needed night of rest.

A shadow moved out of the corner of his eye, and he gripped his keys in between his fingers like makeshift brass knuckles. He desperately wished for his bat, but he knew he was getting too paranoid for his own good. But then again...

"I told you, you hadn't seen the last of me," Billy's smug voice came from the direction of the shadow.

 _I guess you never really can be too paranoid,_ he thought, turning around and rolling his eyes. "Jesus, you are such a walking cliché. What are you doing lurking in mall parking lots? Did you try beating up a thirteen-year-old and got your ass handed to you again?"

Billy chuckled darkly, narrowing his eyes, and taking another drag on his cigarette. Because, of course, he was smoking, the cloud of smoke already creeping its way into Steve's own nose and throat. "You really must like getting the shit kicked outta' you, Harrington."

Steve was exhausted—his very bones ached, and his head was pounding with a fatigue headache—but he was also pissed off and at the end of his patience. Plus he really  _hated_ Billy Hargrove. "If that's what you need to tell yourself, but there's no plate for you to hide behind this time."

"That's a mighty high opinion of your abilities," he retorted, flicking the cigarette so ash flew into Steve's face. "I'm pretty sure I could still kick your ass without trying. You don't know what kind of shit you're getting yourself into."

A shot of ice went down Steve's spine. It was eerily similar to what he'd told Robin when he was trying to keep her out of all the supernatural crap happening in Hawkins.  _That has to be a coincidence, right?i_ "Yeah," he couldn't help a little bit of pride from creeping into his voice, "but I've fought a lot worse than you."

Billy's smirk twisted into something ugly, as his fist hurtled towards Steve's face. The latter tried to duck, but the punch still clipped the side of his head, sending him careening into the side of his car. The keys slipped through his fingers, clattering to the asphalt as he was disoriented, his retaliatory punch going wide, his arm merely clubbing Billy's side. One sucker punch to the gut later, Steve was panting for breath, one arm curled around his stomach.

He felt a hand roughly grab the front of his shirt, and Steve didn't know what was happening until he felt a searing pain in his shoulder. It was difficult not to scream, but Steve somehow managed it, spitting blood out and raising his fists. He lashed out, the blow striking home, and felt a satisfying  _crunch_ beneath his knuckles as he felt cartilage break. Thankfully, that made Billy drop the cigarette, and shaking his hand, his fingers throbbing from the punch, Steve quickly stepped on the still-lit cigarette. He felt a sick kind of satisfaction at the blood pouring from Billy's nose—it was totally worth the pain in his hand. With an otherworldly roar, Hargrove swung wildly, grabbing the front of Steve's shirt once more with one hand, and delivering a swift hit to his eye with the other.

His eye was throbbing, there was an acute pain in his shoulder from the cigarette burn, he could barely feel his hand, and he was still short of breath, but Steve knew he needed to end this fight soon. Robin was still in the store, and he didn't want her to come out and see him getting beat up by Billy. She would try and get involved, and he would like to avoid that  _at all cost._

"Come on, Harrington!" Billy yelled, placing an elbow on his throat, cutting off his oxygen, his other hand delivering a quick jab to his side, right above his kidneys.

He wanted to cry out in pain, but the lack of air prevented that from happening. Steve bucked his torso, trying to get the arm off of his throat, he tried bringing a knee up to hit the other guy in the stomach—or lower if possible—but it didn't seem to do much, if any, damage. Billy grunted in mild discomfort, throwing a punch that clipped his chin, and Steve felt himself bite his tongue so hard he tasted blood.

"Harrington!" A girl's voice called, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to curse her or sigh in relief. "Steve? Are you still here?"

"Well," Billy sneered, and over his shoulder, Steve could see Robin's blonde head coming steadily closer to the two. Keeping Steve pinned to the hood of his car with one hand, Billy turned, catching Robin in his sight. "Now this is the same girl I saw you with at the pool, isn't it?"

Definitely curse her.  _Why does she always willing walk right into danger?_ He asked himself half-heartedly. He knew it was because she was just a curious and compassionate person, and it wasn't her fault his life was twice as dangerous as the normal high school graduate's. Steve mustered the strength to spit more blood to the side, glaring at Billy, hate and rage burning through his entire being. Whether it was subconscious or not, Billy's arm had stopped pressing so harshly on his windpipe, and he took the chance to try and catch his breath.

"I'll take that as a yes," the other guy grinned, licking his lips and winking at Steve. He released his grip on Steve's shirt, but sauntered over to Robin.

 _There's no way she's going to turn back around and walk away from this, is there?_ He thought, coughing and still trying to catch his breath.  _Of course not._

"What the hell?" She exclaimed, her big blue eyes full of fear and anger when they locked onto Steve. He adored that fire she had, that protectiveness and curiosity that guided most of what she did, but he was terrified for her too...especially when Billy kept advancing on her.

"What're you doing, hanging around with him?" Billy growled, putting a finger under her chin and tilting it up, so she was looking him in the eye. "You could do a lot better than that sad sack of shit."

"Better like you?" Robin shot back, looking at the other guy with disgust and batting his hand away. "And don't touch me."

Billy's face darkened, and he grabbed her arm, roughly pulling her close, his other hand slipping underneath her shirt. "And what are you going to do to stop me?" HE demanded, his voice and eyes going dark.

Steve's vision nearly whited out, and not just because of the pain. However, before he could take two stumbling steps forward, Robin slapped Billy across the face. Steve felt a swell of pride—it took a lot of guts to stand up Billy Hargrove, much less hit him—but it was instantly replaced by fear and hatred when Billy hit back. His backhand sent Robin's head snapping to the side, and she stumbled against the wall. He turned back to Steve, conveniently ignoring the red stain spreading across her cheek. "What'd I tell you...plenty of bitches in the sea."

"Don't call her that," Steve growled, somehow finding the strength to rush  forward, catching Billy by the waist, tackling him to the ground.

Billy just cackled madly, grabbing Steve by the neck, yanking him upwards as he stood, putting him into a headlock. For the second time, Steve felt his air being slowly cut off and his vision starting to dim. He tried to hit Billy's arms, trying anything that might force the other boy to loosen his grip, but either he was getting weaker, or Billy was stronger than he had previously thought possible.

He faintly heard someone calling his name, and through the haze of pain spreading through his entire upper body, Steve raised his head and saw Robin, her blonde hair flying around her head. She was pushing off the wall she had fallen against after Billy had hit her, her eyes locked on his.

 _Are you okay?_ He saw her lips form the words, but he couldn't hear anything other than the ringing in his ears.

Steve grimaced, he could handle Billy—he's done it before hasn't he—but he found himself shaking his head as she took a few determined steps forward. Although it was supposed to be his attempt at trying to stop Robin from interfering again, it felt more like an admission that the fight wasn't going so great. She clearly picked up on the first meaning, because she glared at him, as if to say,  _I'm trying to help you!_

His vision was darkening, however, and his hits were becoming weaker and Robin's form turned fuzzy. Just as he felt his eyes roll upwards, the darkness nearly overtaking his entire field of vision, Billy's grip loosened enough for Steve to duck out from underneath his arm. He scrambled away, leaning against one of his car's tires, coughing and taking deep, shuddering breaths. His eyes darted around frantically, and saw Robin, lying on the ground and raising a hand to her head.

Steve staggered to his feet, catching Billy by surprise, throwing him face-down to the ground. He managed one meager punch to the back of Billy's mulleted head, before the other boy wisened up and shoved Steve to the side. Letting out a groan as his ribs made  _painful_ contact with the asphalt, he turned onto his side. He felt Billy grab his shirt collar and delivered one more hit to his cheek, sending Steve's head rolling and catching a glimpse of Robin's back as she seemed to be running right towards the brick wall.

 _Why did she have to get involved?_ He thought once more, his vision starting to grow dark again and the parking lot seemed to spin, as he heard a voice call out...

* * *

"Hello, 9-1-1, I need you to get to the Starcourt mall immediately," Robin tried to keep her voice from shaking as she stared down Hargrove. The mall's outdoor payphone was like a lifeline, and sh was gripping it so tightly her knuckles were turning white.

Thankfully, Hargrove let go of Steve, the latter's limp form dropping to the asphalt with a disheartening  _thump._ "You really are such a bitch," he growled, taking a few menacing steps, his face a twisted mess of blood and anger.

She pressed herself into the phone booth, and on instinct, Robin squeezed her eyes shut, tilting her head away from Hargrove, but there wasn't much room to move. "I ain't gonna' forget this. You can be sure of that, Blondie." He ran a finger down the side of her face, to her neck, and would've gone lower if she hadn't planted one hand on his chest and pushed. Hard.

"I thought I told you to get your hands  _off of me,_ " she spat, finally finding her voice, and was thankful it wasn't shaking as bad as the rest of her body. "And yes, operator, I'm in the northwest parking lot. Please come quickly, my friend is unconscious."

"Such a bitch," Hargrove repeated, shaking his head, and giving Robin one last look that made her want to puke. Thankfully, he didn't try and grope her again, but simply turned and sprinted out of the parking lot.

She let out a shaky breath, sagging against the phone booth, practically falling to her knees, the dial tone of the pay phone cutting through the night. Robin let out a single dry sob, grateful that Hargrove wasn't as bright as he was terrifying, as she fumbled with the cord, finally getting the phone back on its hook on the third try. 

She stumbled upright, running to where Steve was laying, her bag dangling at her elbow.  _Please be okay...well...awake,_ she thought, dropping beside her coworker, trying not to panic at the sheer amount of blood and bruises covering his face.

"Steve. Steve!" She shook his shoulder roughly—thank god he was still breathing. "Come on! I can _not_ drag your unconscious ass across Hawkins in the dark! Harrington, you need to wake up!"

"I like it better when you call me  _Steve,_ " came the groggy response,  hazy brown eyes meeting hers and a lopsided smile spreading over his face.

"Ow," he mumbled lamely, his eyes fluttering open and closed.

She took a deep breath, steadying her thoughts and hands, as she pulled his arm over her shoulder, wrapping her other arm under his torso, pulling his close. "Keys?"

Steve mumbled something unintelligible, gesturing towards the space underneath his car.

She reached over, leaning over Steve, inadvertently pulling him closer to her chest as she swiped underneath his car. Once she felt the cold metal brush her fingers, she pulled back, gripping the keys in one hand. :"Come on, you have to help me out here a little bit."

"You're bossy sometimes," he grumbled, shooting her a vaguely annoyed look, but pulling himself to his feet with a groan.

She didn't dignify that with a response, other than flashing him a soft smile. Quickly, she unlocked his car's doors, throwing her bag into the backseat. "Let's get you home."

Steve narrowly avoided banging his head on the roof of the car, fumbling with his seatbelt. "Dad'll kill me. Can't get blood on the carpet. Carpet'll be there forever."

That made even less sense than what she already expected a guy drugged on his own pain would've said.  _This could really only go poorly,_ she thought, getting into the driver's seat. "I never said we were going to your house," she replied, starting the car's engine and pulling out of the parking lot.

He laughed, turning to send a smirk her way, although, at least that's what she thought his intention was, it  ended up just looking like a bloody mess. Steve then fell silent, and she looked at him worriedly, praying he hadn't passed out, but saw that he was staring vacantly at her, the remains of the smirk still on his face. "Just...hold on," she whispered, pressing the gas pedal nearly flat to the floor.

The next fifteen minutes seemed to crawl by, and she didn't think they would never make it to her house, even though the speedometer never fell below fifty. But, Robin had to quickly slow down as she neared her house, seeing her father's car in the driveway. Cursing under her breath, she pulled the car over in front of some neighbor's pristine yard a block away from her house.

"Ow," Steve groaned—he had been thrown into the dashboard when she had slammed on the brakes. "Where are we?"

Robin took a deep breath, snatching her bag from the backseat and turning to face the half-conscious boy next to her. "About a block back that way is a brown house with yellow shutters. My window is on the second floor, go around the back and it's in the right corner. Got it?"

He nodded, looking at her, never breaking eye contact, although she wasn't sure if that was because of the pain or something else. "I'll find a way up there. Ten minutes, promise."

For the briefest moment, she wanted to lean over and give him a kiss—just a press of her lips to his cheek, letting him know that she was there, that she was going to help him—but she had to get home. If she had missed curfew by even half an hour, her dad would be getting ready to send out a search party for her. Robin settled for simply squeezing his hand, which had found its way into hers, and met his eyes sadly.  _Please be okay,_ she pleaded silently, biting her lip briefly, before getting out of the car.

She took one last glance back, before turning and jogging back to her house. "Sorry I'm late, Dad," she called, locking the front door behind her. But, when she heard no response, she slipped her hand into the bag's pocket that held the pocketknife. "Dad?" She shouted once more, creeping through the abandoned lower floor, before going upstairs and peeking into her dad's room. Robin let out a sigh of relief when she saw her dad fast asleep on top of the sheets, an empty scotch glass on the nightstand.

She quickly ran to her room, tossing her bag on the bed and throwing the window open.

A quiet  _thump_ immediately drew her eye to figure trying, and failing spectacularly, at climbing up the ladder-like drainpipe to her room. "Steve," she hissed down to him. "Go around the front."

The figure nodded, disappearing around the corner of her house. Slamming the window shut, Robin dashed back downstairs, opening the door right as Steve went to knock.

"Glad I didn't have to ninja my way into your room," he said, lowering his fist, shoving both hands into the pockets of his jeans.

Robin had a sudden vision of a bashful but confident Steve showing up at her house, his face clean of blood and bruises, his hands in his pockets, and his earnest brown eyes finding hers as he led her down the driveway to his car. She shook her head, as if that could get rid of the image of Steve picking her up for a date.  _There are bigger problems here,_ she reprimanded herself.

Ushering him into the house, she shut the door behind the two of them, locking it, before leading the way up the stairs to her small bathroom. Thankfully, it was slightly larger than the one at Scoops Ahoy, so there wasn't that kind of stifling closeness, but Robin could feel another kind of tension as if fit was radiating through the air between the two of them. She locked the bathroom door too, just to be safe, even though there wasn't any real chance that her dad would be waking up anytime soon.

The sound of something clattering to the floor made her jump, her heart thudding wildly in her chest. Turning around, she saw Steve looking sheepish from where he was sitting on the counter next to the sink. She shook her head in disbelief,  _how did he manage to drag himself up there?_ Her heart caught in her throat when she saw the blood dripping from his chin, running down his neck, staining his t-shirt, before falling to the tiled floor. She sighed, nervously tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear as she made her way over to the counter. Attempting to ignore the way she had to reach around Steve to open the cabinet right next to the mirror, the blonde grabbed a box of band-aids, anti-bacterial cream, some gauze, and a rag.

She made sure the running water was warm as she soaked the rag, wringing it out before raising it to Steve's face. His brown eyes were still glazed, although she wasn't sure if it was from the pain or something that she didn't dare name...it was probably the pain anyways. With soft, methodical strokes, she cleaned the dried—and not-so dried—blood off of his face and neck.

When Robin could finally see his tanned skin, even if it was just a sliver here and there in between purple and black bruises, she stepped back to examine his injuries. She would normally blush at the fact that she had moved to stand in between Steve's legs and that there was barely a foot of space between them, but the injuries littering his face and the dire situation they were in, scared her so much, she was sure her face was drained of all color.

She grabbed the anti-bacterial cream, figuring she'd start with what she  _could_ treat, before getting something to ice his bruises. He had several cuts criss-crossing his face, there was a particularly deep one on the bridge of his nose, his knuckles were cut and swelling, both of his eyes were darkening (he would certainly have two black eyes in the morning), and red, hand-shaped bruises encircled his throat. Blood was still dripping from his nose, but, thankfully, it looked like it was stopping soon, and the rest of his wounds had stopped bleeding already.

Robin put a hand on his shoulder to steady herself as she stretched to reach the cuts on his forehead, but a sharp hiss seemed to echo in the silent bathroom.

She immediately rocked back onto her heels, her hand snapping away from his shoulder, and she looked up at Steve, concern in her eyes and her heart sinking at his pained expression. Putting the cream down, she leaned forward to examine his shoulder, and honestly had to make an effort to keep bile from rising in her throat.

A raw, angry burn had been seared into his shoulder, and the shirt around the mark had been completely burned through. She had just hoped that the fabric wasn't stuck to his skin, since her hands were shaking so much that she didn't trust herself to cut the shirt off without cutting Steve too.

He must have read her mind—or at the very least, the look on her face—and reached down, clearly biting back a groan of pain as he tugged the shirt over his head. Robin took the shirt from him, throwing the bloody garment into the tub, before studying his now-bare torso. She felt her cheeks finally flare with a blush when she saw the lean muscles of his arms and chest, and the beginnings of a defined six-pack, but her eyes lingered much longer on the many bruises that littered his body. Some looked fresh from his fight with Hargrove, while others were clearly much older and were the yellow color of a healing bruise.

Sadly, there wasn't much she could do about the bruises at the moment, she couldn't bring herself to leave the bathroom to get him something to ice them.  _Besides,_ she tried to convince herself,  _there's always time for that after I take care of the rest of his scrapes._ She made sure to spread anti-bacterial cream on all the cuts on his face, bandaging up the worst of them.

Unfortunately, her meager first-aid supplies didn't have anything that would help with the burn, but she ran another rag under cold water, washing and lightly bandaging the burn as best she could.

When she was finished, Robin couldn't find it in herself to step away, which only seemed to increase the racing of her heart and encourage the butterflies in her stomach. It must have been her subconscious wishing to torture her, because the last thing she had done was wrap his knuckles, and she couldn't help running her own thumb over them as if that could heal them.

She felt something lightly brush her cheek, right underneath her eye, and when Steve pulled his thumb away, there was blood smeared across it. Robin dropped his other hand as she went to swipe a hand across her face, but before she could, he took her wrists in his hands, staring at her scraped palms with only slightly unfocused eyes.

"He hurt you," Steve muttered, the first words either of them had said in at least an hour.

While she hadn't expected to come away without any injuries of her own, especially after she threw herself at him to try and keep him from strangling Steve. And thinking back to the fight, she realized that one of his rings must have cut her when the older boy slapped her, and the scraped palms, then, had occurred when Hargrove pushed her off and she caught herself on the asphalt.

"I didn't even notice until now," Robin admitted quietly, looking up to meet his eyes. "Adrenaline."

His brown eyes seemed clearer than before, but she could easily read the pain that still lingered in their depths. He was studying her face, his eyes roaming from the cut under her eye, to the freckles on her cheeks, before landing on her lips. Steve leaned forward, and the butterflies in her stomach flew into a frenzy, and her tongue seemed to have a mind of its, since it darted out to wet her lips, as if in anticipation. Her eyes fluttered closed for half a second—if she just extended her neck a few inches, she could feel his chapped lips meet her own. However, once her head caught up with her racing heart, she put a hand on his (still bare) chest, pushing against him gently.

"We can't," Robin choked out, opening her eyes and finding herself confronted with Steve's rapidly darkening gaze. "Steve..."

"I like you," he started, a hand coming up to tuck a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "A lot."

Her heart somehow managed to simultaneously sink and rise at his words, as she realized that she hadn't been imagining the sidelong looks that he sent her at work, or the way he seemed to fight harder against Hargrove when she entered the equation.

"I like you too," she confessed, a sad smile spreading over her face.

Steve leaned forward again, this time cupping her cheeks in an attempt to bring her closer, but she gently pushed him back once again. "Then why not?" He asked, his voice becoming angry as he leaned back, almost as far away from her as he could get, and she mourned the loss of contact as her hand dropped listlessly back to her side.

"Because...you're in pain." Robin explained morosely. "How do I know if you're even going to remember any of this? Besides...I just can't."

"Why not?" He repeated, but this time through gritted teeth, a muscle jumping in his jaw.

"I move around a lot," she sighed, "and if I let us...happen, it's going to be that much harder for me, for  _us,_ when I have to leave."

Steve curtly nodded once, leaning his head back against the mirror, his face a blank mask, but she could see the anger and hurt threatening to burst forth. Robin had to turn away, surreptitiously wiping at the tears that were dangerously close to running down her cheeks. "I'll get you a new shirt...some of my dad's stuff should probably fit."

"It's fine," he cut her off, jumping down from the counter, his entire body looked like it was wound too tightly for the pain he must be in. She was forced to back up quickly, moving back to lean against the opposite wall, hugging her sides tightly as if that could stop the ache in her chest. Steve grabbed his ruined shirt from the tub, turning it inside out and putting it back on. "I should be getting back, anyways. The kids are expecting me to, to, uh, take them to the Byers' soon."

Robin nodded, accepting the coldness that had quickly replaced the heated tension that had filled the air between them just seconds before. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest, because although she knew this was going to be for the best in the long run, that didn't make it hurt any less now. So, she followed him out of the bathroom quietly, down the stairs, and once the front door was closed behind him, she rested her forehead on the wood and let tears fall from her eyes. 

* * *

Steve was angry—seeing red, all-encompassing, mind-numbingly angry.

The days at Scoops Ahoy had turned tense, as he remained as surly and curt as he had been right after Robin had rejected him—he wouldn't have been so angry if she didn't feel for him the same way he did for her—but he had put himself out there, had shown her his heart and made himself vulnerable, and she had turned away from her feelings as well as his. From what he could tell, there was no reason to cause himself any more emotional pain, so he tried distancing himself from his coworker. It hurt, but Steve had dealt with a lot worse, both physically and emotionally.

It had only been a few days since the fight, and he was still angry. Although, that was probably more due to the fact that he was stuck at the damn mall while the party was out there dealing with the Mind Flayer creeping its way back into Hawkins.

He was trying not to glare at the little kid asking him for  _yet another_ scoop of sprinkles, but the look he gave the kid was apparently enough to get the chattering ten-year-old to take his ice cream silently and run to his friends in the corner booth.

"Geez, what'd that kid ever do to you, Harrington?" Robin's voice cut through the dull buzzing of anger in his ears. Her tone was light enough, but one glance at her vaguely blank expression told him otherwise.

"Nothing," he bit out, probably more harshly than he needed to, but he couldn't quite find it in himself to care in that moment.

She opened her mouth, her brow furrowing, but she just looked at him sadly, before turning away. It wasn't that he was angry  _at_ her...well, he kind of was, but he didn't  _want_ to be. He had felt that electricity in her bathroom as she patched him up, and he had been hit with how much he actually cared about her, bypassing the anger he felt at being beat to a pulp by Hargrove, again. When he had bent his head to kiss her, her lips barely a breath away, he knew that the electricity was ten times more powerful than what he had felt with Nancy, more than anything he had felt for any girl before.

He still wasn't totally sure if it had just been his pain-addled brain, but even after he had driven home, trying to forget the events of the evening, the only thing he could remember was the way the florescent lights gave her a halo, and how his bare skin had seemed to be steaming as his legs bracketed her body. And when he realized that the bastard's slap had drew blood and the palms of her hands were almost scraped raw as she tried to save him from Billy, he was surprised that he was able to hate the man even more.

His skin seemed to itch at the fact that she stood only a couple feet away from him, but he needed to stay where he was, no matter how much he just wanted to close that distance, wrap his arms around her, and forget all about the craziness in his life for a brief second.

He vaguely heard the jingle of the bell that signaled that someone was entering the store, but his head only snapped up when he heard the familiar voices.

"Hey guys," Robin said, her voice sounding genuinely cheerful this time. "What brings you two here?"

Jonathan's dry sarcasm rose above the giggles of the two girls. "We heard two of the best ice cream scoopers in town work here."

It was apparently possible for him to become even more pissed off than he was already, and the words shot through his veins like fire. Robin's low laugh drew his attention, and his blood started to boil when he saw her eyes light up for the first time in a week.

"What are you  _really_ doing here, Byers?" He growled, ignoring the shocked look Nancy sent his way, and how Robin immediately turned away from Steve, her face red.

"I just wanted to see my  _friends,_ " Jonathan replied, stressing the last word and crossing his arms defensively. His voice was full of steel, but Steve could see the uncertainty and fear in his friend's eyes.

He snorted derisively and was about to retort, probably with some angry comment that he would instantly regret, but, thankfully, Nancy cut him off before he could do so.

"Robin, can you cover for him?" Steve and I need to talk."

The blonde nodded silently, looking between the three friends with apprehension, chewing on here bottom lip. When her eyes finally landed on Steve, as Nancy was storming past the counter and out the back door, he met her gaze and saw a strange combination of tears anger reflected back at him. However, he remembered the way she had pushed him away, even after she admitted that his feelings were reciprocated, and he turned away, following his ex out the back door.

"What did you—" he started but had barely got the words out when Nancy rounded on him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She practically shouted at him, throwing her hands in the air. "Did you really have to be such an ass back there?"

"Come on Nance, I was just joking around," he lied, crossing his arms defensively. He knew exactly what had put him so on edge, but didn't feel like telling his ex that he had been rejected again.  _I mean, what would she think?_ He thought, digging his fingernails into his arm.  _That I can't even deal with the emotional fallout of being shot down without retreating into the dickhead "King Steve" persona? That I'm just thanking God that Tommy H. and Carol aren't here to see my "fall from grace"?_

And then the one word that he dreaded hearing more than anything else, fell from her lips and seemed to hang in the air between them. "Bullshit."

Steve ground his teeth, refusing to look at Nancy and turning to stare at the door leading back inside. Of course, Robin decided to burst through  the door at that very moment, Jonathan railing close behind her.  _Perfect,_ he thought to himself,  _I desperately needed the two of them to come out here right now._

"Steve, look," Robin started, her voice sounding tired but with  an angry edge to it. She stalked right up to him, poking a finger into his chest, her blue eyes still holding that unnerving mix of sadness and annoyance. "I don't know what I expected after that night, but it sure as hell wasn't this. If you can't accept that I...that we..." Her voice trailed off, tears filling up in her eyes, but she refused to look away.

His hands spasmed at his sides, balling them into fists, as he struggled to keep his face impassive. He desperately wanted to pull her closer, to crush her shaking form against him and reassure her that she hadn't lost him as a friend, no matter how much he wanted to be more than that. But then he saw Jonathan looking between him and his coworker, and Nancy staring at Steve with a quizzical look on her face, and his mind filled with the unending chorus of  _bullshit. You're bullshit. Like we're in love. It's all bullshit._

The blonde was clearly waiting for him to reply, but he didn't know what she expected him to say. To justify himself? To apologize? He  _was_ being a jerk, but he was also exhausted, sleep-deprived, and feeling like everything his dad used to say about him—how idiotic he was, that he wasn't going to amount anything without his help—was being thrown in his face, at least implicitly. She slowly lowered her finger from his chest, wrapping her arms around herself, turning away and marching back into the mall without another word.

Jonathan wasn't far behind, but paused at the door, a fiercely protective look coming over his features. "You've been an asshole to her lately, but she still likes you. Robin, I mean, she-she cares a lot for you. Thought you'd like hearing that."

Steve stared at the door swinging shut behind the older Byers brother, the pain in his chest expanding pointedly. After trying so hard to push Robin away since the fight with Billy, she still hadn't bought it, choosing to still care about him, even if he didn't deserve it.

"What happened between you two?" Nancy asked softly, her voice thoughtful, almost sad.

Steve sighed, his entire body sagging and deflating, unable to keep up the façade of nonchalance anymore.  _It cannot possibly get worse if I tell her what happened,_ he gave up. "I told her I liked her, after...this," he gestured to the black and blue bruises and the scabs still covering his face. "She said she felt the same, so, so I tried to kiss her, an-an-and she pushed me away!" He really didn't want to be telling all of this to  _Nancy Wheeler_ of all people, but he was way past caring what she thought of him...she had made that painfully clear already.

"Jonathan says she moves a lot," the dark-haired girl explained. "Maybe she knows she's going to be moving again soon and her reaction had something to do with that."

"Maybe," Steve muttered, even though that had been the exact reason she gave, whispered in the stillness of her small bathroom, her hand burning where it had rested on the bare skin above his heart, her cheek so soft beneath his own palms. "Or maybe I'm just bullshit."

Nancy glared at him, but she just shook her head, staring at the sky as if she could find the answers there. "I hoped you would've gotten past that by now," she muttered, her eyes hard.

"Well that's a little hard to do when I keep being reminded off it," he retorted, thinking of all the times he was witness to Jonathan being the kind of boyfriend he never could've been to Nancy. And that's not mentioning having to deal with his old friends' near-constant mockery of his job, his current friends, basically his life as a whole.

Back then he had known, deep down, that Nancy wasn't as in love with him as he was with her, but some part of him had wanted to be enough from her. Maybe he would've been enough for Robin...but he wasn't going to even get the chance to fail with Robin as he had with Nancy.

His ex-girlfriend sighed, clearly having her own flashbacks to their doomed relationship. "She's my friend, she's Jonathan's friend, but more importantly, she's  _your_ friend, Steve. Just try and remember that she's lost you too."

Steve's heart sank at that, and he nodded slowly, rubbing a hand down the side of his face. As much as he wanted to be  _more_ than just friends with Robin, he'd take being friends over acting like strangers.

* * *

Robin stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, rubbing her eyes as if that could get rid of the tears that were forming there. She straightened her tank top, combing her fingers through her hair—basically doing anything to make it look like she didn't just dry sob in the Scoops Ahoy bathroom for fifteen minutes straight.

"You okay, Robin?" Jonathan's uneasy voice came from the other side of the bathroom's door. She muttered a garbled affirmative, holding her breath until she heard his footsteps fade away. After the blow-up with Steve that afternoon, she had jumped on Jonathan's offer to drive her home. She didn't really feel like taking a forty-minute walk home with her thoughts; she just wanted to rock out to The Cure's  _The Top_ with the windows down as she tried (and probably failed) to forget about Steve.

She failed the "forgetting about Steve" plan even earlier than she expected, since when she exited the bathroom, Steve Harrington was waiting for her, leaning against the wall opposite from the bathroom door.

"Hey," Robin said flatly, crossing her arms. His blank look from their argument just outside of Scoops Ahoy was now replaced with a sheepish half-smile.

"I'm sor—" the words had barely left his mouth before she shook her head, turning to walk away. She didn't want him to apologize simply because Nancy guilted him into it, besides, he didn't know how much good he was doing her by pushing her away. When her dad was finished with his investigation, he would pull her out of school and they would move to wherever her was sent to next. She couldn't hurt him even more by leaving so suddenly if they were  _more—_ it was going to hurt enough to leave him as a friend.

"I'll talk to you later, Harrington," she muttered, not failing to miss the way that his eyes hardened, and his mouth  clamped shut into a thin line.

He nodded curtly, barely grunting out a goodbye, before heading into the bathroom to change. Robin took a deep breath, steadying her thoughts and racing heart, because no matter what she tried to convince herself otherwise...she had let herself get attached to Steve Harrington.

"You ready to head out?" Jonathan asked, knocking on the wall lightly. She nodded, sighing, as she followed her friend out to his car.

"I just really need to listen to some good music right now," she practically threw herself in the passenger seat, dumping her backpack at her feet and rifling through his tape collection to find what she was looking for. "To prepare for  _The Head on the Door?_ "

Without waiting for his agreement, she popped the tape into the deck and let the familiar music wash over her. Steve might have become her best friend in Hawkins, but she was immeasurably grateful for the way Jonathan and Nancy had accepted her as their friend. He was someone who she could talk to about anything, from her weird music tastes to their terrible bosses. On the other hand, Nancy was the type of friend she'd never had—a girl she could gossip with in between intense discussions about the strangeness happening in the town.

"Hey Robin," Jonathan called out to her, leaning to talk to her out the passenger door window. She turned around, fiddling with the straps on her duffel bag. "Ar-are you going to be okay?"

She gave him a wan smile, nodding her head curtly. "I'll manage. I've had to say goodbye to friends before."

He smirked sadly, and she realized that if he didn't understand her so well, he might have taken it as a personal insult. "But," Robin admitted, "I've never had to say goodbye to a place like Hawkins before."

Jonathan nodded in understanding, after all he was going to leave for NYU in the fall, giving her a quick wave before finally driving back into the direction of town. Once his car's rear headlights disappeared, she looked up at the night sky, finally letting a tear or two run down her cheeks.

After such an emotionally draining day, an emotionally draining week really, Robin fell asleep right after dinner and didn't rejoin the world until her alarm went off the next morning. She had to drag herself out of bed and stumbled all the way to the Starcourt.

The entire day was just like every other one since  _that night:_ stilted and cold. By the end of the day, she had a raging headache from barely holding back her tears—of anger or sadness she wasn't quite sure anymore—for hours. She didn't expect everything to go back to normal after that night, she didn't want it to but that was what needed to happen, but she had hoped they could at least  _pretend._

At the end of the day, she changed robotically, then shouldered her bag, locked the Scoops Ahoy doors, and started trudging across the parking lot.

"Robin, hey!" A familiar preteen's voice shouted, and she saw all of the party piled into Steve's car, Will practically hanging out the front window.

"Hey, I've missed you guys around the store," she bent down, resting her elbows on the front passenger side's window. She had to grin at the way both couples were squished into the backseat, and how Dustin and Will were squished up front on the bench seat.

Will turned red, his eyes wide and darting nervously between his friends. "Sorry, it's been, just, kind of busy around here."

She glanced at Steve, her mind rushing at around fifty miles an hour.  _Are these kids involved in whatever is happening around here?_ She tried to ask him with a look, but he refused to meet her eyes, staring blankly at the dark parking lot.

"It's not your fault," she smiled as if that would reassure the kids. But she straightened up, wondering—not for the first time—what exactly was going on in Hawkins.

"Come to the arcade with us!" El exclaimed, leaning forward slightly, a pleading look on her face.

"Oh, that's okay," Robin waved a hand dismissively. Her heart sank as she glanced at Steve for half a second, before turning back to El. It sank to her stomach because not even a week ago, she would have been climbing in that car without a second thought, joking around with Mike and Will, or talking to Max about the new  _Day of the Dead_ movie that was coming out at the end of the month. "It doesn't look like there's any space for me anyways."

"I don't think Steve would mind if you sat on his lap," Dustin muttered, a sly grin spreading over his face since he had deliberately said it loud enough  for the whole car to hear.

Robin felt her face heating up and a lump forming in her throat, as she avoided looking at Steve. He was probably just as embarrassed as she was, but with all the added tension of the last few days, she didn't know how to look him in the eye after that comment. And especially not when she still remembered the pull in her stomach when she nearly kissed him, and how his breath ghosted across her face, his hand brushing over her skin, leaving sparks behind.

Not to mention that this had all happened while he was half-naked and she was in short-shorts and a tank top.

"I should get going," is what she finally said, turning away from the car at the same time Steve called to her: "Just get in."

She looked back at him in shock, finally meeting his eyes and finding a kind of sweet hopefulness there. He shrugged as if to say,  _these kids are in control here and we both know it._ He swatted Dustin on the arm, jerking his chin towards the backseat so she could climb into the front seat, Will sliding across the bench seat into the spot Dustin had just vacated. Robin shot a grateful glance towards Steve, who grinned at her, his eyes lighting up with...something.

"What? She gave me puppy-dog eyes," he explained, starting the drive towards Arcade Palace.

She glanced over her shoulder, smiling at El, who looked immeasurably happy and smug from her perch  on her boyfriend's lap. The curly-haired girl turned to Mike, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes, the two looking incredibly peaceful amidst the loud chaos of the rest of the car.

But that moment shattered when the car was hit on all sides, and all of the kids in the backseat were jerked violently to the side—Dustin hitting his head on the roof of the car, the two girls pitching forward against the back of the front seats, Will slamming into her own side, Mike and Lucas both being thrown ingot the side doors.

Once the kids' screams of surprise died down, Robin snapped her neck around, ignoring the way her throat burned where the seatbelt had choked her. "Anyone hurt? Steve, what the hell was that?" She shouted, checking the very pale Will next to her for any injuries.

However, Steve ignored her, twisting inn his seat, holding one hand out, the other still resting on the wheel. "Bat! Bat! Bat!" He yelled frantically over the kids' shouts and the crunching of what she assumed was the car's hood.

"It's not back here!" Mike's voice rose above the others, even Lucas and Dustin who were turned around, staring out the back window shouting something about gargoyles.

Steve cursed, practically ripping off his seatbelt and kicking open the door with an intensity she hadn't ever seen from him. She could now hear the scraping and scuttling of what sounded like insect limbs, and the unnatural screeches that echoed around the car.

"Steve, _Steve_!' Robin shouted, reaching across the bench seat in an attempt to grab her coworker's arm, but he was already out of the car. She cursed and wrestled with her own seatbelt for a few seconds, before finally releasing it and opening the door. "Stay in the car," she told the party, although their protests followed her as she climbed out of the car.

Even though the days lasted longer in the summer, it was still pitch-black at this time of night, the car's headlights only illuminating a small portion of the trees that lined the side of the road. She felt something brush against her leg, cutting into her shin. A small yelp escaped her, and she kicked out her leg, feeling her Chucks connect with a hard shell as she pushed...whatever it was away from her. "Steve, what's going on? What was that back there?" She demanded, throwing her hand out to gesture behind her in the vague direction of the insect-things.

Steve barely seemed to hear her, only glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, as she reached him as he was digging around in the trunk of his car. The party's shouting grew louder and clearer, until she was able to make out someone calling: "Behind you! Behind you!"

However, before Robin could react besides turning around, Steve had stepped in front of her, swinging a baseball bat like he was hitting a home run, knocking what looked like a giant beetle out of the air.

Robin screamed and scrambled on top of the trunk, clutching the edge until her knuckles turned white, kicking out whenever one of the beetles made it past the swinging bat. In between the swings, she noticed the odd spikes protruding from the top of the bat, but didn't have time to think about the set of circumstances that led to the bat being modified. She could see that the beetles—although they weren't really like any insect she had ever seen—were about the size of a large dog, with darkened outer shells, long, spider-like legs that came to sharp points, no faces but mouths filled with needle-like teeth.

Steve was starting to get overwhelmed, as more and more were getting past him, some even crawling around to scrape their knife-like legs against the car doors.

Out of nowhere, an invisible blast seemed to knock the beetles back at least twenty feet. Not one to question a miracle, she grabbed Steve's arm, running back towards the front of the car. He opened the door for her, his eyes scanning the darkness in case the beetles came back, his nail-bat hanging loosely in his other hand.  _This clearly isn't the first time this has happened to the party, or him,_ she thought, and that thought made her freeze.

"You've done this before," Robin said angrily, turning around and facing Steve.

"Just...get in the car. Please?" He deflected, almost like he was asking her for her permission, his eyes roaming over her face. She saw resignation, but also a fierce protectiveness in their depths, as if he was begging her not to ask questions, especially ones she already knew the answers to. He wanted this to be her choice. Although he clearly didn't want her near this fight and was fully expecting her to run screaming in the other direction, he was willing to protect her if she wanted to stay.

She felt her own determination take over—she had fought some weird insectoids that were definitely not from this earth, and she was going to be damned if she was going to just walk away. Her mind made up, she looped an arm around his neck without warning and pulled him down to her level, fiercely pressing her lips against his.

Steve's free arm—the one, thankfully, not holding the nail-bat—immediately wrapped around her waist, tugging her so she was flush against him. Every point where their bodies touched, which was pretty much everywhere, felt like it had become electrified—she was hyper-aware of the way she was pressed against his chest as if they were melting into one another. And when he slanted his mouth, deepening the kiss, she thought her knees might actually be in danger of buckling.

Robin had kissed guys before, made out with some even, but this kiss was something she had never experienced. It was desperate and passionate, yet still sweet and so full of emotion—it felt like he was drinking her in, memorizing her, while she was getting lost in him, reveling in the way it felt to be so close. She didn't know who pulled away first, but she didn't move far, leaning her forehead against his, her lips still tingling, trying to catch her breath as the kiss had metaphorically (and almost literally) taken her breath away.

"You're not getting rid of me so easily," Robin whispered, realizing that she had become thoroughly involved in whatever this was since she decided to dig through her dad's coat pockets. The words were a formality more than anything else, but the kiss was her acceptance of the fact that she  _had_ grown attached to this sarcastic, caring, great-hair-having coworker of hers, along with the party of preteens that came with, even as a blush rose in her face as she heard their muffled whistles and hoots echoing from inside the car. She had genuinely come to care about their little group of self-proclaimed nerds and weirdos as the summer, with its craziness, had went on. Robin was not going to leave their side while they faced down insect-monsters; she was raised on army bases and she would (and  _could)_ fight. "I'm part of this now."

* * *

The trees raced past the car windows, as he sped back towards the Starcourt Mall. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he couldn't make out the gargoyles following them, so Steve focused on the road ahead...and if he snuck a lingering glance at Robin as he did so, well, who was going to call him on it?

His brain was not made to handle all the different directions his thoughts were going in at the same time. On one and, he was trying to come up with a plan on  _how_ to keep the kids safe once they got to the Starcourt, because of course they wouldn't let him take them back to the Wheelers' or Hooper's cabin and lock them in. He was also majorly paranoid about the insect-like gargoyles attacking the car again...or maybe the monsters were just following them and were planning an ambush when they least expected it. On the other hand, he was also nervous about how Robin was going to react when he told her  _all_ of what had been happening in Hawkins this summer. Steve was sure she had already figured out something supernatural was happening, but he doubted she knew the extent of it.

He sighed, only partly in frustration, because now all he could think of was Robin. The way she had boldly pulled him down in a kiss; the rush  in his chest as he pressed her closer to him; how he could have kissed her for days, only stopping to breathe every so often. When her lips had touched his, all of the feelings he had tried—and failed miserably—to tamp down this week, came rushing to the forefront of his mind and was refusing to leave.

He couldn't help himself, and he risked another look at the girl in the passenger seat, her blonde head in her hand, her elbow resting against the window. She stared vacantly out the front windshield, her other arm wrapped around Will, clearly as a way to comfort the shaking boy. Robin must have felt him staring, because she turned her head, a shy smile gracing her lips. He returned her smile with a crooked smirk of her own, and felt a rush of pride when her cheeks pinkened and she turned back to stare out the windshield.

"Hey, hey, hey," Dustin's voice rang throughout the near-silent car. "Pay attention to the road, Steve. You can't make out with Robin if we all die in the next few hours."

Steve rolled his eyes and Robin chuckled, but he did force himself to turn forward as they pulled into the Starcourt parking lot. He put the car in park close to the back entrance of Scoops Ahoy, but turned around looking at each of the kids in turn. "Okay, it's pointless to ask you all to stay put, right?"

All of the party, predictably, shook their heads and gave adamant protests, and he sighed in resignation. "Well, if we're going to do this, we do it my way this time, got it? Get the hell inside and please, for the love of God, stick together—at the very least stay in pairs, okay? Okay." He took a deep breath, scanning the dark lot once more, his ears straining to hear the scratch of the gargoyle's legs as they were coming closer.

"Uh, in case you haven't noticed," Lucas interjected, waving his hands towards the darkened mall, "we don't have a way to get  _in_ there."

"Here," Robin replied, tossing Lucas something small and shiny, her other hand sticking something else in her own pocket. "Tom gave me a key back when we did that...commercial," she blushed at the last word, as the kids let out giggles and he felt his own cheeks redden as he remembered that horribly awkward day of filming.

"Right," Steve started again, rubbing the back of his neck, wracking his brain to try and figure out the best way to approach the surely upcoming attack. "Okay. Get inside, stay together, and..."

"I think we know the drill," Mike interrupted sarcastically, moving to open the door. "Set some traps, don't get killed."

"Not dying would also be a good idea," Max retorted, crossing her arms and looking between her friends.

"Yeah, that too," Steve agreed dryly, feeling like that was the unspoken end of the conversation.

Everyone quickly got out of the car and the party immediately took off, sprinting the short distance to the Scoops Ahoy back door. Steve lightly grabbed Robin by the forearm, gently tugging her to the payphone booth that was built into the outside of the mall.

"We're going to need backup," he said, resisting the urge—now that they were alone, without the party there to catcall the two of them—to pull her into a kiss, but the kids were counting on them. That, begrudgingly, cam before whatever was going to happen with the two of them. "Nancy and Jonathan should be at the Byers'. If not, Mrs. Wheeler might know, but I wouldn't count on it," he explained, rolling his eyes at the Wheeler parents' nonchalance towards their children's whereabouts.

 _You'd think after two years of weird occurrences centering around their children, they might be more alert,_ Steve thought, astounded that,  _somehow,_ he was a better parental figure than Karen and Ted Wheeler.

Robin nodded, eyeing the phone booth with mild distaste, but climbed in anyways, dialing the Byers' home phone number from memory. He reluctantly turned around, holding his bat in one hand, resting it on his shoulder, and scanning the dark parking lot as best he could. She could make the call to get their friends over to the mall, while he was better equipped to keep watch.

"Jonathan?" She whispered fiercely, and when he glanced over his shoulder, she was staring at the ground with her back against the phone booth's back wall. "We need you and Nancy at the Starcourt...Yeah, some bug-things attacked Steve's car...they called them gar...yeah, gargoyles...Oh, okay, see you soon."

When she mentioned the monsters, Steve couldn't help the chill that crept up his spine, despite the ridiculous name the kids insisted on calling the insect-monsters. He just wanted to get inside and get this damn fight over with. He realized that the more he fought things from the Upside-Down—and he had fought a few this summer already, in his time defending the Byers's house—the less afraid of them he became. Despite this, he was still terrified for the kids, who were still  _way_ too young to be fighting monsters, and now for Robin, who had barely any idea what she was getting into.

He felt a tug on his arm, turning to see Robin, a grim yet determined look on her face, Steve jerked his chin towards the door to Scoops Ahoy, silently asking her if she was ready to head inside. Her hand slid down his forearm in response, and she intertwined their fingers and hands, squeezing tightly.

It wasn't too weird to see the store at night, and the emptiness of the rest of the mall barely registered on the strangeness-scale for Steve, especially when compared to the attack on his car.

His heart jumped in his chest, and a frantic scan of the ice cream parlor revealed that none of the kids were there. Shooting a concerned look at Robin, the two immediately started sprinting out of the store, following the sounds to where the party was currently raiding Claire's.

Thankfully, it had only been Will accidentally knocking over a stand of earrings in the jewelry store as the party was gathering material for traps. Steve rolled his eyes, but started helping the kids anyway, reluctantly letting go of Robin's hand in order to do so. "You idiots are going to give me gray hairs one of these days," he grumbled, crouching down to pick up the stand.

The kids and Robin started laughing, easing some of the tension in the store, but only for a moment. The atmosphere of unease quickly returned, and by the time Nancy and Jonathan arrived—with the chief and Joyce Byers in tow—they had raided almost every store in the mall for supplies.

"Some gargoyles were following us the entire drive over," Jonathan said breathlessly, even as his mom immediately swept Will into a hug, the chief doing the same with El.

"You kids picked a hell of a place to make a final stand," Hopper rumbled, scanning the darkened mall with a critical eye as the whole group claimed one of the food court's tables as their "base camp."

Steve bristled at being called a "kid," he was almost twenty for crying out loud! And although it hadn't been his idea to go to the mall, he also didn't have a better one. Plus, it always felt like he needed to impress the chief, to prove that he wasn't just a dumb jock, but that he could be trusted with El, Will, and the rest of the party. He felt a hand brush his underneath the table and he tried, he really tried, to keep the stupid grin off his face when he took hold of Robin's hand. Her thumb rubbed circles across his knuckles, calming his rising indignance towards the chief, and refocusing his attention to the fight at hand.

"So what you're saying is that we're going to have to split up?" Max cried, throwing her hands in the air. Steve had clearly missed whatever Hopper had just said, because he certainly would have shut down the idea of splitting up almost the second it was suggested, but he had tuned almost everything out once Robin's hand had brushed his.

"How the hell can we beat these things if we're not together?" Mike asked, although the franticness of his tone and the way his eyes darted to the girl next to him, meant that he was definitely more worried about being separated from his telekinetic girlfriend, and not because she was the only one in the group with superpowers.

The chief pinched the bridge of his nose, and Steve was glad that someone else was on the receiving end of the party's never-ending questions for once. " _Because,_ " Hopper explained through gritted teeth, "if we split up, that means  _they_ split up."

"Giving us a better chance at taking them all down," Steve finished, nodding his head. As much as he hated the idea of being separated from the kids, or Robin, or even Mrs. Byers (who, like her sons, was fearless but not the best at fighting what  came from the Upside-Down), the chief made a good point—they stood a chance if the gargoyles were in smaller groups as well.

"Okay," Mrs. Byers exhaled shakily, "but I'm staying with my boys."

Hopper looked at the petite mother with a sad look on his face, taking her gently by the arm and leading her away from the table. He shot a meaningful glance at Nancy and Steve, clearly telling them to handle everyone else.

"Right," Nancy said, standing up and glancing at the rest of them in turn, almost like she was sizing everyone up, but she was fiddling with her fingers until Jonathan put a calming hand on her back. "There's not a whole lot of time before the...gargoyles get here, so we group up and then spread out.

"Pick a store and set traps," Steve continued, giving Dustin a pointed look. "And no goofing off,  _got it?_ I'm not going to be able to watch all you dickheads at once."

Dustin rolled his eyes comically, but the rest of the party nodded—most of them clearly too nervous or scared to tease him about being their babysitter, and Steve almost missed it.  _Almost._

Deciding that pairs would be the easiest way to cover the most ground, the group quickly split up into partners: the  Wheeler siblings, Lucas and Jonathan, Robin and Max, Steve and Dusting, and it was decided that El would go with Mrs. Byers, and Will with the chief once the adults had rejoined the group.

Before he knew it, Steve was pulling Robin into a tight hug, muttering a rushed goodbye into her ear. He didn't know how he got so lucky, that not only was she cool, independent, and good with the party, but she was willing to fight against the Upside-Down with the rest of their strange, little group with, like, zero advanced notice.

"Let's get going," Hopper bellowed, giving one last look at Mrs. Byers, before heading off with Will towards some shoe store.

"Don't die," Robin whispered at the same time he told her: "Keep in touch."

She nodded, patting the walkie-talkie at her hip—Lucas and Mike had managed to get six sets of "borrowed" Supercom's working from the Radio Shack. Impulsively, he leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek and squeezing her hand before reluctantly pulling away. She smiled, dropping his hand, before she turned to Max, the two girls making their way to Scoops Ahoy.

Nodding his goodbyes and good-lucks to the rest of the group, he started walking to the Gap, a grinning Dustin in tow. "Pay attention," he grumbled, rubbing the top of his friend's head as the two got into position, lighting a candle from Wick 'n' Sticks in the window to draw the gargoyles to them.

Dustin's smile didn't fade, but made a motion of zipping his lips shut, to which Steve rolled his eyes, turning to face the front of the store.

The screeching of the gargoyles echoed through the mall's empty hallways, and he tightened his grip on the bat.  _This is it,_ he thought, waving a hand for Dustin to take cover behind the counter, and moving so his back was against the wall next to the door.

He could feel the skin of his chest vibrating in time with his heartbeat, and the blood rushing in his ears was deafening compared to the silence that filled the store. Steve held his breath as the distant scraping noise of the gargoyles' legs passed by on the other side of the wall, before stopping at the door.

The monsters burst through, not even noticing Steve as they barreled straight into the racks of clothes the two boys had placed right in front of the door. Steve did a quick scan and counted five gargoyles tangled in the clothes, while two more were skirting around the edges, heading directly for the candles. He whistled shrilly, drawing the attention of the two free gargoyles, while the other five tried to turn towards him, but only succeeded in tangling themselves even more.

He spun the bat in his hand before stepping forward, swinging at the closest unencumbered gargoyle, connecting with the hardened shell with a loud  _crack._ Yanking it free—the hit had only left a few dents in the shell from the nails—he brought the bat down hard on the fleshy head, dark blood leaking out as the body fell to the ground.

 _Only six more to go,_ Steve counted down, kicking back the gargoyle trying to flank him, and with a quick two-hit that monster was down as well.  _Five._

"Steve,  _watch out!_ " Dustin called, his curly head poking out from behind the counter for a split second, before disappearing once more.

He turned around and saw three of the gargoyles had gotten free of the racks and were moving quickly towards him.  _Shit,_ he thought, his breath already becoming a little ragged, but adrenaline quickly made him forget about his exhaustion and sleep-deprivation. He had been staying up almost all night for about a month, because the Upside-Down was creeping into Hawkins once again, and he had seen, up close, what the Mind Flayer was capable of, and he wasn't going to let these monsters win. Steve knew how to fight them—their shells were strong, but get around them, and the gargoyles went down faster than the demodogs—and so he  _would_ fight.

His priority was keeping them occupied and away from Dustin, and he was doing his damndest to hold the monster's attention.  _Four, three,_ he caught one in the stomach as it leapt towards his head, throwing it into another gargoyle, both of them crashing through the window, face-first. The last free gargoyle was taking the slow approach, but Steve hurled himself forward, tackling the thing bodily, and throwing it into the rack of clothes.

"Now!" He shouted, scrambling backwards as Dustin sprinted out from behind the counter, grabbing the candle and throwing it onto the clothes. The fabric went up in flames almost instantly, and the three trapped gargoyles let out unearthly screeches as they started to burn.

"Shit," Dustin cursed as he helped Steve up, pointing to the mini-bonfire in the middle of the Gap. "Are we going to have to pay for all that?"

Steve just looked at him in confusion, his mind still not processing much, except for:  _Two, one, zero._

* * *

The gargoyle screeched in Robin's ears, the sound echoing in the silence of the shop. She was flat on her back, with her elbows locked in front of her, holding the screeching monster at arm's length. She tossed the gargoyle against the wall of Scoops Ahoy, watching the shards of its shell scattering across the tiled floor of her workplace.

She scrambled to her feet, her blue eyes darting around the store, taking in the gargoyle bodies covered in ice cream and Formica chips—three of the monsters had slipped on the ice laid right inside the entrance, before they crashed into the ice cream counter—as well as the fourteen-year-old redhead currently bashing the head of one of the monsters with a metal ice cream scoop.

Max was brave, and she knew that the girl had dealt with monsters before, but she wasn't doing much damage with the oversized spoon.

"Get out of the way!" Robin shouted, pulling the pocketknife from her short's pocket—after all, she had slipped it there when she was searching for her key to Scoops for an occasion just like this.  _Why can't I be a normal teen?_ She thought sarcastically, since she wouldn't change a thing that had happened this summer for anything.

The younger girl practically fell backwards, away from the gargoyle, as the monster reared on its hind legs, roaring at her in anger. Robin crept up behind the gargoyle, flicking the pocketknife open, sticking it through the back of its neck.

"Ew," Max grumbled, wiping the black blood from her legs and then wiping her hands on the floor. "That was pretty badass though."

Robin grinned, her breath coming in short pants as the adrenaline started to wear off. "Thanks," she said, walking over to the downed gargoyles and using her knife to ensure that none of  the monsters were going to be getting back up. "We should see if the others need help," she said, helping the redhead to her feet, already starting to scan the mall hallways and the rest of the darkened storefronts to see where their help might be needed.

"But didn't Steve say that we should stay put? You know, not expose ourselves to more danger," Max stated matter-of-factly, crossing her arms, but her eyes sparked with mischief and excitement.

The blonde smiled, arching an eyebrow and giving her a look that said,  _Steve is definitely not in charge of me._ She spun her knife between her fingers, carefully edging the door open, her eyes scanning the empty hallway. Nodding her head, she made sure that Max was following close behind as the two left the relative "safety" of Scoops Ahoy.

The distant screeches of the gargoyles were faint and came from all directions, the echoes only adding to the confusion and—if Robin was being totally honest—the abject terror of the situation. Her skin had been crawling and her stomach in knots ever since Steve had almost crashed his car, but she was eighteen, technically an adult, and she couldn't afford to freak out. Her dad had taught her that "losing it" in a combat situation was almost certainly a death sentence, and although she was fairly certain her father had never fought something like what they were facing, that mindset was proving to be useful as the night went from weird to bizarre.

Her heart nearly stopped in her chest as the cries slowly died out, and before long, there was only silence in the Starcourt. Robin motioned for Max to get behind a booth or table as the two girls entered the deserted food court. Her grip on the pocketknife was so tight, her knuckles turned white, but she zeroed in on the shadows moving on the opposite side of the court. Her grip only relaxed when she saw the tell-tale shape of a bat with spikes and really great hair, and she let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Steve," she hissed, folding the knife and sticking it back into her pocket. Her coworker stepped into the faint light coming through the windows, his face half-obscured by shadows, but she saw the grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Abandoning all pretense of stealth, she dashed across the food court, and saw Steve drop his nail-bat and start running towards her as well, meeting her in the middle and reaching out to cup her cheek, pulling her into a desperate kiss. Her eyes fluttered closed, his lips were rough, his hands clutching almost painfully at her waist, and when he pulled back, she felt like all the air had been sucked from her lungs. She knew they must look like such a cliché, but her mind was near the breaking point—she had no idea what she had just been  _killing,_ but they were not like anything she had seen before.

Steve's arms tightened around her, lifting her a good two inches clear off the ground and squeezing tightly, and instinctively she wrapped her legs around his waist, grateful that her jean shorts allowed a decent range of movement. He spun her around, only a little unsteady, and when he set her down, she barely got a glimpse of his battered face before he pulled her closer once again. He pressed her against him, one hand cradling the back of her head as she buried her face into his shoulder, his grip softening and his fingers dancing lightly on her hips. "You're handling this way better than I did," he murmured, turning his head so his lips brushed lightly against her neck.

She shivered at the contact, so soft and innocent when compared to the violence and...total strangeness that had been her life for the past few...hours? Weeks? Months? She wasn't quite sure anymore.  "Don't worry, I'm going to have a major freak-out later."

"Well, I guess I owe you one after all I've put you through," he chuckled, slowly releasing her, his classic smirk reaching his eyes.

She felt relieved at the fact that he at least was  _trying_ to make her feel somewhat normal despite how close she was to breaking down. "Hmm," she played along, her own smile widening, "I think dinner and a movie would be a fair trade."

Steve mad a show on contemplating her terms, but eventually just let loose that smile of his that made her knees weak and her stomach fill with butterflies. "I think I can make that happen," he said, turning to watch the rest of their party file into the food court, but kept her closes, moving one arm so it was wrapped around her shoulders instead of her waist.

Robin didn't even try to hide the relief and comfort that came from having the steady pressure of his arm around her and her side pressed against his. With every person in their group that returned, she felt her muscles start to relax even more.

However, when she saw the bloodstains and scrapes covering the kids, how Mike and El practically flew towards one another, and the way Joyce Byers looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment, her nerves started to fray again, her breath coming quicker as the full impact of the last few hours caught up to her.  _That freak-out might be coming a lot sooner than I thought,_ she noted to herself. Protecting the kids and fighting the creatures had given her a purpose, but she was now realizing that she knew probably about ten percent of all that had just happened, what had  _been_ happening in this town since she had arrived, what her dad's investigation into Hawkins Lab was really about,  _what was really happening and had happened in Hawkins Lab,_ the list could go on and on.

"Hey, you okay?" Steve asked her quietly, a worried look coming over his face.

The words seemed stuck in her throat as images of the gargoyles swarming the car flashed across her mind.  _What had actually pushed them back?_ Robin shook her head, trying—and failing—to keep her breathing even.

She saw him nod, quickly saying something to the group, but it was like he was underwater or like her ears were filled with fuzz. Hopper and Joyce nodded, looking at each other briefly, before giving their respective kids a hug and reluctantly pushing them towards the teenagers. Nancy and Jonathan led Will, Mike, and El out of the food court, while Steve guided the remaining party members and Robin out to the parking lot.

His car was dented from when the gargoyles had attacked them on the road, but it looked even more banged up after the swarm of monsters had passed through the Starcourt parking lot on their way to kill them. Robin was fixated on the scraped metal, the punctures in the car door, right where the kids had been sitting, the cracks in the windshield, and she felt her breath quicken again. Her heart jumped in her chest, thinking about how close those monsters got to them, only a thin layer of glass had stopped Will from being stabbed with one of those knife-like legs while her and Steve had gone to play hero. She felt Steve's hand on the small of her back, guiding her into the passenger seat.

The drive to drop off Dustin, Lucas, and Max went relatively quickly, and before she knew it, Steve was easing the car to a stop just past her driveway. He put the car in park, turning off the engine, the lights turning off as well, leaving the two teenagers in near-darkness, the interior of the car only lit by the lamps that lined the street. She vaguely registered Steve turning towards her, but her eyes remained focused on the dashboard in front of her and tried to concentrate on  _not_ hyperventilating.

"Hey," he said softly, and she felt a hand brush against her cheek, tucking some of her blonde hair behind her ear. "Are you—"

"Please don't ask if I'm okay," she snapped, wiping her cheeks despite the fact that tears hadn't fallen yet. "Because I'm definitely not, none of those kids are, and I don't think you are either."

He sighed, dropping his hand from her face to her shoulder, trailing his fingers down her arm, leaving goosebumps in their wake, before slowly prying her hand open, lightly rubbing circles against her palm. "I've seen shit like this happen quite a few times before...I think I'm getting used to it now," he admitted, and when she looked up, he was looking at their hands, refusing to meet her eyes. "The fighting comes easy, it's a way that I can actually be useful to those kids, but this summer's been extra difficult."

"What's been happening?" She asked, but when the pause stretched on a little too long, she pleaded, "Steve, please...I need to know what's going on."

He finally met her gaze, the brown irises filled with resignation, sadness, and a bit of fear. "It's a long story," he deflected weakly, running his free hand through his hair.

"I don't have anywhere to be," Robin looked at him with a soft grin. She was pleased that he trusted her enough to tell her the whole story of the strange things happening in Hawkins.

* * *

Two weeks after the showdown at the mall, Steve still had to walk past the Gap where he killed half a dozen gargoyles, the place now tainted with the memory of that night (just like Mrs. Byers' house was after 1983), the only difference was that now he felt Robin's hand squeeze his whenever she felt him tense at the sight of the store. He never realized how much it helped, having a partner who actually supported him, both of them pushing past the trauma they suffered after facing these monsters to be there for one another.

 _Which is probably why I was such a shitty boyfriend before,_ he thought, looking at Robin, a soft smile spreading over his face as he squeezed her hand back, Watching Robin have a near breakdown that night...it had terrified him, his protective nature flaring up has he realized that if he couldn't shield her from the nightmare she had been thrown into, he could be there for her, rubbing her back or running a hand through her hair to reassure her that not even a Demogorgon could pry him away from her. And he was finally willing to admit that he sometimes needed support, the nightmares of what might have happened if he was only  _a little slower_ when fighting the gargoyles haunting almost his every moment.

Despite her initial breakdown, and general shock about learning that a girl she was friends with had telekinetic powers, he could tell that she was taking the revelations in stride. He grinned as he studied her wiping down the counter at Scoops Ahoy, amazed by her nerve and courage. He could avoid the Gap if absolutely necessary, but she continually, and  _willingly,_ returned to the place where she had Max had nearly been eaten by the gargoyles.

His life was bizarre and screwed up, and there was no ignoring it and certainly no running away from his past...and what was likely to be his future. And it was unendingly refreshing and surprising that she was willing to stick with him in spite of that fact.

"We've got to pick up the kids from the movies right?" Robin asked, and Steve had to laugh out loud at how absurdly  _domestic_ the statement sounded. "What?" She protested, her hands on her hips and furrowing her eyebrows in a cute expression of confusion.

"Nothing," he laughed, leaning over to plant a firm kiss on her lips, He felt her smile into the kiss, and he was about to reach a hand up to pull her closer, when a loud cough broke through their little bubble. Steve quickly jerked his head around and couldn't stop his face from twisting in anger when he saw his father standing in the entrance of Scoops Ahoy.

"Do you have a minute?" His dad bit out, his nose wrinkled in disgust as he took in both Robin and the ice cream store. "I'm sure your little  _friend_ could find something else to do to occupy her time."

Steve felt shame and anger take over his thoughts, and he wanted nothing more than to shout at his father—or possibly punch him—for dismissing Robin so insultingly, but when he glanced at her, her expression was also set in a pissed off stare, her mouth a thin line.

"I need to get changed anyway," she muttered, crossing her arms and never taking her eyes off of his dad. "You gonna' be okay?"

He nodded curtly, also never letting his father out of his sights, except when he leaned down to kiss her lightly once again. "Yeah, meet me out back?"

Robin smiled in agreement, giving his shoulder a squeeze before turning and disappearing back behind the counter. The sparks that had been radiating from her touch quickly vanished even though he mourned the loss of contact and, by proxy, her support. He closed his eyes when she was finally out of sight, mentally preparing himself for what was sure to be a difficult conversation with his father—after all, what other kind of conversation with his father was there?

"Just, for the record," he started, turning around and sticking his hands in his pockets so his dad couldn't see how his hands were clenched tightly into fists. "Robin's my  _girlfriend,_ so if you could just not be such an asshole to her—"

"Don't take that tone with me," his dad interrupted angrily. "You may not want my help with college, but I am still your father and will be treated with all due respect."

Steve shook his head and looked at the ground, unable to believe his dad's arrogance, and found a chipped tile.  _That must have been from_ that  _night. He has no idea what Robin or myself have been through  throughout this entire summer._ "All due respect," he muttered, his temper dangerously close to the surface. "All due respect, huh? Do you even  _know_ her? Like,  _seriously,_ anything about her? Her name? But, more importantly, do you know anything about me?"

"That's  _enough!_ " His dad interrupted, crossing his arms and a stormy look coming over his face that was way too reminiscent of Steve's own pissed off expression to be comfortable. "I've pulled some strings, and the admissions office at IU are willing to let you start in the fall...with a scholarship even. Seriously, Steve, you need to see reason! You'd be an idiot to turn away from this, and once you're there, I can easily get you a position in my company within your first two semesters there."

"God, Dad!" Steve shook his head, running a hand through his hair in utter shock. "I don't want to  _be_ you! I don't want to be a real estate agent, I don't want to go to IU, and..." He took a shuddering breath, steadying his heartbeat as he did so. He's faced down a lot worse than his dad, during this summer alone. "And, I'm going to Hawkins Community College in the fall, and figure out what I  _do_ want. You might be acting like a massive dick right now, but you're still my dad. I want you to be okay with my choice."

His father's face twisted into a disgusted expression, his brows furrowing as he let out a huff. "Unfortunately, I can't stop you from wasting your own money on this," he ground out through gritted teeth. "Or from toiling your life away  _here,_ but don't expect anything from me or your mother."

 _Of course not, Mom will follow your lead,_ Steve filled in the blanks,  _and Troy's a little punk who idolizes you and will do anything to make my life miserable._ He couldn't force a smile but stuck a hand out for his father to shake.

His dad just looked at the hand and turned around to walk away.

"That's about right," he muttered under his breath, unsurprised at his dad's reaction. But, deep down, he was just happy that he wasn't being kicked out.

Unable to focus on cleaning up anymore, he threw down his rag, changed as quickly as he ever had, and stalked out to the back parking lot, his anger cooling as he caught sight of Robin leaning against his car. He felt a grin spread across his face, completely unbidden as he scanned her relaxed from—from her beat-up Chuck Taylors, to her tanned legs sticking out of her jean shorts, to where her fingers were tapping out a beat on her crossed arms, to the freckles that dotted her gorgeous face, finally ending with admiring the way the sunset shot strands of gold through her blonde hair.

"Hey," she greeted, using a hip to push off of his car door to walk over to him. "What'd your dad want?"

The relief he felt at not getting caught checking her out—even though he doubted she would care that much, she was his girlfriend after all—quickly disappeared behind the wall of stress that came with dealing with his dad. "He's just trying to turn me into him."

Robin's arms slid around his waist, her chin resting on his chest as if she could sense his anxiety and was trying to give him some kind of comfort. "And what do  _you_ want?"

Steve smirked, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, letting the light scent of her shampoo overwhelm his senses, crowding out the ghastly vanilla smell that was a liability that came with working at Scoops Ahoy. "Not to turn into him for starters," he admitted. "But, it worked out in the end, we're just back where we started at the beginning of the summer. Now, come on, the kids are probably wondering where we are."

"They've seen  _Back to the Future_ like four times already," she snorted. He was just glad she wasn't pushing the "dad" issue, that she knew he could handle it on his own. After all, his dad was marginally less terrifying than some of the monsters he faced from the Upside-Down. "I don't think they'll mind if we're a little late."

His smirk widened into a true grin as he bent down, cupping her cheek with one hand and drawing her to him, covering her lips with his. She seemed to sag against him as he leaned his whole torso into hers, his mouth slanting over Robin's, pulling a small sigh from her as he did so. His stomach tightened at the noise, he could feel almost every curve of her slim body and as her arms tightened around his waist, he moved his free arm to tug on her hip, pulling her even closer.

He lost track of time in the small bubble of electricity that surrounded himself and Robin, the two only breaking apart for the briefest of seconds when it was absolutely necessary to breathe. However, when she finally pulled back, resting her forehead against his, he slowly remembered that the party was counting on them.

"We should probably..." He started, his voice sounding low and hoarse even to his own ears.

"Yeah," she continued, a shy smile coming over her pink lips as she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

Steve opened the passenger side door for her, smirking as she gave him a quick peck on the cheek in thanks.  _I'm one lucky bastard,_ he thought a she started the car and taking off towards the theater.

After that night at the Starcourt, him and Robin decided to make it official, but their dynamic hadn't really changed. They still complained about their boss and the ridiculous customers that came to Scoops, but with the added bonus that they could now sneak make-out sessions in the back room when the store was empty. They still hung out with the party whenever they could—whether it was supervising a campaign trip at Hopper's cabin or when Dustin talked the couple into helping them with one of their D&D campaigns—but they were able to be more openly flirtatious with each other.

When he pulled up to the theater, the party were arguing in front of the doors and barely noticed that their ride was here.

"Hey!" Steve shouted across the car, sharing a smile with Robin as they laughed at the always rambunctious group. "Are you kids going to get in the car or do we need to take a lab around the block?"

That got the party's attention and so began the process of trying to fit everyone into his car. His old station wagon was not meant to fit eight people, and every time that he had to drive the party around, it took at least five minutes to get all the preteens situated.

"Oh my god," Robin chuckled, scooting across the bench seat and tucking herself into his side, practically on his lap. "You  _totally_ need a bigger car if you want to keep this up."

"When I have cash to spare, that's the first thing I'll get," he said sarcastically, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "Dates might have to be on hold for a while."

"Oh no," she said dryly, "I'm only dating you for the free meals and movies."

"I told you she wouldn't mind," Dustin muttered loudly, and without even looking, Steve reached an arm back to smack his friend upside the head.

"Okay, time to go," he decided, rolling his eyes and heading back to the Wheeler's amidst protests from the party that they were supposed to go to the pool. "We need to get your bathing suits before we can go to the pool, dipshits."

"Don't forget sunscreen!" Robin chimed in, a bright smile on her face.

"Okay,  _mom,_ " Lucas joked, causing Max to dissolve into a fit of giggles and for the rest of the kids to cackle madly.

He wasn't sure how she would react to the parent jokes—he had been living with them for nearly a year now, so he was getting to the point where he almost liked them—but, he shouldn't have been worried. He couldn't help the smile that came over his face when she let out a low laugh, resting her head on his shoulder and good-naturedly flipping off the party.

Steve dropped a kiss on her forehead and tugged her closer, even as the party ran inside the Wheeler's to grab their bags and get changed. At the beginning of the summer, he wouldn't have thought that the cute girl from work would, not only be into him, but be cool with all the craziness that came with.

"We're totally like their substitute parents, aren't we?" She muttered, and he didn't have to look to see the grin on her face.

"Yeah, I guess so," he sighed, but didn't bother hiding his own smile and laugh. "God, when did that happen?"

* * *

Robin wasn't usually a vain person, but she found herself checking her appearance in the mirror for the third time in five minutes. She ran her hands through her blonde hair, chewing on her lips as she tried to get it to fall around her face in a way that didn't look completely frizzy. Her first "official" date with Steve was tonight—they were going out to dinner with Jonathan and Nancy, but she was still filled with nerves.

"Dad!" She called out as she pulled on her Chucks. "I'm getting picked up to go out to dinner, but I should be back by curfew."

"Who is this  _friend_ that's picking you up?" Her dad asked, knocking lightly on her door, an unreadable look on his face.

"It's my boyfriend, actually," she replied with a grin, still a little bit in disbelief that she got to call  _Steve Harrington_ her boyfriend. "We're just heading to Benny's Diner with some of our friends."

Her dad raised his eyebrows—probably in shock that she was being so candid with him about one of her dates for once.

"I really like this guy, so please don't embarrass me," she pleaded, a hint of a grin tugging at her lips as she heard the doorbell ring. " _Dad!_ Come  _on!_ "

She quickly followed her father down the steps, grabbing her bag on the way and rolling her eyes at the way her dad opened the door, leveling Steve with his trademark "soldier-stare."

"So," he growled, crossing his arms, "I take it you're the boy who thinks he's good enough for my daughter."

"Okay," she drew out the word, pushing past her dad and out the door, grabbing Steve's arm as she did so. "Like I said, I'll be back by eleven. Bye!"

Her dad raised an eyebrow once again but appeared to relent when Steve blushed as he looked at her and reassured him that he would bring her back by curfew. She snuck a look at her boyfriend, his brown hair gelled in that effortless-Steve-Harrington-way of his, and the cuts and bruises on his face were fading—hopefully her dad didn't think that the injuries meant he was a bad influence—which she thought that they showed his bravery while adding a rugged edge to his looks.

 _Basically,_ she thought with a grin and a blush,  _he's an all-around amazing guy, I really like him, and I'm totally fine with being attached to him and this town._

"You look," Steve stuttered, a faint redness rising in his neck, "really, really beautiful."

"Thanks," she blushed, "you look...really good too. And don't worry about my dad, he's all bark."

They spent the car ride over to Benny's chatting about nothing important, but she couldn't help the butterflies in her stomach when he never let go of her hand for the whole ride over, and how he opened the door for her like a gentleman.

Cursing under his breath, he flung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in. "I had hoped to get there before them.  _What?_ I wanted some alone time with my girl."

She raised an eyebrow at the statement, but she smiled anyway, too filled with hope and lightness at the affection she heard in his voice. "Let's just head in, 'kay?"

Steve murmured in agreement, opening the door for her and leading her over to where their friends were sitting.

"Hey!" She greeted them, giving Nancy a quick hug before sliding into the booth. "Have you guys been here long?"

"Not at all," Nancy replied. "We haven't even ordered yet."

"Great," Steve groaned, taking the spot next to the free spot next to Robin and slinging an arm across the back of the street, "I'm starving."

Jonathan laughed at that, flagging down a waiter for menus and a few glasses of water. Robin was just glad that they were all friends again, but, then again, fighting a bunch of monsters together overruled the teenage drama they had been dealing with beforehand.

"So," Nancy whispered, leaning across the table and using the guys' conversation to cover her ow voice. "You and Steve are doing great, huh? I'm so glad you two finally got together, I'm so happy for you guys."

"Yeah," Robin blushed, nervously looking at her hands. "Thanks Nance, I know you two were a thing so I'm glad it's not going to be weird."

"No, don't worry about that," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Jonathan and I are so happy, and you are so much better for Steve than I ever was."

She felt her cheeks become even more heated, but she nodded her silent thanks to her friend and turned back to the rest of the table, sending her boyfriend a quick, appreciative glance."

"What were you two talking about?" Steve muttered lowly, brushing a hand through her hair and re-tucking a strand or two behind her ear.

"Oh, nothing you need to worry about," she teased, craning her neck to press a quick kiss to his cheek. She felt a swoop of butterflies in her stomach as she saw the smirk tugging at his lips, and blushed even more when she saw Jonathan and Nancy whispering together, occasionally glancing back at her and Steve. "So, Jonathan, how's the packing going?"

"Well, every time I start packing, my mom starts to tear up," he said with a half-hearted smile, but she could tell he was legitimately conflicted about leaving. "I, just, I feel kind of bad about leaving her and Will. I mean, I'll be in a whole other time zone."

Nancy gave her a look that said,  _please tell your friend he's being crazy because I clearly haven't said it enough times already,_ and Robin had to stifle a laugh at the expression on the other girl's face.

"You shouldn't worry," Steve interjected before she even got the chance to open her mouth. "Your mom's a strong lady, and the three of us will still be here so we can always check up on them for you."

"Thanks, that'd be great, actually," Jonathan let out a sigh, flashing his girlfriend a thankful smile.

"Plus," Robin added, taking a fry from the basket the waitress had just set in the middle of the table, "Hopper will  _totally_ be willing to help your family out. He's practically in love with your mom already."

"Eww," Jonathan groaned, while Nancy and Steve broke down into laughter, "I  _really_ didn't need to know that."

"Oh, come on!" She laughed, arching an eyebrow, "I've lived here for three months and I figured it out, like, instantly. How did you guys not realize it?"

"I knew!" Nancy raised a hand, sending her boyfriend an apologetic look. "Sorry, but it  _is_ kind of obvious."

"Next topic please," Jonathan choked out, taking a sip of his drink. "Steve, come on, help me out a bit. What are your plans for the fall? You're staying in Hawkins?"

"Yeah," he started, picking at his food, "I'm sticking around here, gonna' take some classes at the community college, probably work some more, just figure out what I want to do. You're the bigshot around here, Byers. I don't remember the last time someone in Hawkins went away for college," he added quickly for her benefit.

"I'm sure it's better than working for your dad though," Nancy added knowingly.

"Yeah, well, there are some upsides to staying in town," Steve teased, flashing Robin one of his swoon-worthy smiles.

The blonde rolled her eyes, but laughed along with the rest of the table. She ate the rest of her burger quietly, interjecting every so often to tease her boyfriend or to gush with Jonathan about the new  _Cure_ album that was just getting released (but that Hawkins wouldn't get for probably another few months). As much as she loved hanging with the party, it was refreshing to hang out with another couple their age, to just be a carefree teenager for a few hours.

In fact, as Steve was walking her back to his car, she felt her heart sinking as she realized that the night was quickly ending, and with Jonathan leaving for school soon and Nancy about to get really busy with the newspaper, she wasn't sure when this whole group would be together again.

"Hey," she said, turning around and looking at her friends with a bright smile, "do you guys want to head somewhere else? I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to you crazy kids yet."

Steve rolled his eyes, but looked at her with a goofy expression on his face, that she took for affection but looked more like he had just got run over. "I know a good spot to hang out."

"That better not be a cheesy line to get me to agree to go with you to :Lover's Lake," Robin admonished, her face breaking into a smile as Nancy devolved into giggles.

Her boyfriend blushed, running a hand through his hair sheepishly. "No, there's a hilltop that overlooks the town that might be nice to hang out. Plus, there's a can of beer in my trunk that we can split."

Nancy and Jonathan seemed to have a full conversation in just looks, but in the end, they were on board, piling into Jonathan's car and promising to meet them at the hilltop.

The drive passed in a comfortable silence, Robin just rolled the windows down, letting the warm summer air run through her hair, a smile breaking her face wide open as she let her eyes fall closed, basking in the peace of the moment. She felt the car stop and peeked one eye open, unable to help the snort of laughter that escaped her when she saw Steve staring at her.

She raised an eyebrow, but felt her cheeks turn red. "I'm guessing that we're here."

He cleared his throat, "Umm, yeah, we are." Steve quickly got out of the car, and Robin followed suit, her mouth dropping open as she took in the view. The car was parked at the top of a hilt, practically at the edge of a cliff, with the entire lights of the town laid out below them.

"Wow," she breathed, wrapping her arms around herself, "this is incredible, Steve."

"Yeah," her boyfriend replied as he came up to stand right by her, "it almost makes Hawkins look...normal."

Robin laughed, leaning her head against his shoulder and waving to Jonathan and Nancy as they pulled up. "Well, this must be what towns look like when they don't have the plot of  _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_ happening to them."

Jonathan shook his head at the statement, helping his girlfriend up to sit on the hood of his car as Steve quickly ran to get the beer. She grinned, making her way over to her friends and taking the offered cup from Steve.  _Of course he had red cups just lying around...my boyfriend is such a cliché._

Nancy held her own cup up as a toast, and was soon followed by the other three, all of them crowding around in a small circle, clinking their plastic cups together like they were filled with champagne instead of a quarter can of cheap beer. However, the silence was quickly broken as Jonathan coughed and Robin gagged, practically spitting out the liquid in her mouth.

"I think I'm done," Jonathan said quietly, setting his cup down on the grass with a mildly disgusted look.

"Same here," Nancy said, as Robin nodded her own agreement, sending an apologetic look to her boyfriend. "Why did we think it was a good idea to drink stale beer?"

"That was sitting in a trunk in the height of August," Robin added with a laugh.

"Whatever," Steve grumbled, taking another sip from his own cup, but he wrinkled his nose slightly as he drank the warm beer.

That broke the ice, and the two couples dissolved into laughter, finally glad that they got to enjoy one of the last days of summer. Steve cranked up his car radio's volume, flipping down his sunglasses and trying his best to imitate Tom Cruise, while Nancy and Robin grabbed each other and spun around to  _Take on Me._

"You know how incredibly lame you all are acting right now, right?" Jonathan called out in between laughs, his face turning slightly red from lack of oxygen.

"Come on!" The two girls protested at the same time, while Steve scoffed good-naturedly.

"A little dancing won't kill your cool," Steve added with a ridiculous dance move that had Robin shaking with laughter at his total lack of shame.

Jonathan shook his head in disbelief, but when Nancy came over to him and stuck out a hand, he begrudgingly got down from the car. "I want it to be noted that this is against my will."

"Oh, boo you!" Steve and Robin shouted as Nancy let out a triumphant cheer.

Even as the moon rose high in the sky, the four teens didn't feel tired, their exuberance turning into adrenaline as they literally danced the night away. Robin had lived a lot of different places in her life, but as she waved goodbye to two of her best friends—as they drove to, presumably, Lover's Lake—and she hopped up onto the hood of her boyfriend's car, next to said boyfriend, she realized that there wasn't anywhere else she wanted to be.

"I think you're definitely going to miss your curfew," Steve said dryly as the sun started to peek out from the horizon, turning the sky shades of purple and pink and orange.

"I officially missed curfew a few hours ago," she retorted, resting her head on his shoulder, pulling one leg up and letting the other dangle, and breathed out a soft sigh of contentment as his arm wrapped around her, pulling her close to his side. "I'm probably gonna' get chewed out by my dad for this, but it was worth it."

"It was?" He asked, turning his head to look at her in mild confusion.

In that moment, Robin felt like he wasn't just asking if it was worth it to break curfew tonight, but if everything that had happened during the summer had been worth it. Worth getting involved in something supernatural that she still couldn't totally explain. Worth practically adopting an uncontrollable, yet lovable, group of nerdy preteens.

Worth getting attached.

"Totally worth it," she replied with a soft grin.

Steve ducked his head to quickly press a kiss to her freckled nose before turning to rest his cheek on top of her head.

She smiled even wider at the gesture, wrapping her arms around his torso and gazing out at the sunrise over Hawkins, Indiana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the fluffy, '80s high school movie montage of an end that these poor characters deserve!
> 
> Also, I don't know if anyone cares, but here's a larger view of the mystery that I couldn't find a good place to add it in, based on some of the interviews about ST3: basically the Mind Flayer influenced people around Hawkins, like it did with Will in ST2, making them his spies (a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and, in cases like Billy, supernaturally strong. Basically, it wanted to get revenge on El and Will and basically take over Hawkins, and once the party figured it out, the Mind Flayer slowly sent the gargoyles out, before the final battle of the Starcourt, stopping the Mind Flayer.
> 
> Sorry if that was a little long, but I'm anxiously awaiting a trailer or for all of this to just be proven wrong lol.
> 
> As always, I appreciate all comments, kudos, etc. so don't be afraid to leave one!!!!!


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